Derry City and Strabane DC - Annual Performance Report 17/18

Derry City and Strabane District Council 

Annual 

Performance 

Report 

2017/18 

www.derrystrabane.com

Contents 

Introduction 1 

Performance Improvement under the Local Government Act 2014 

What is Improvement? 

Recording and Reporting Progress 

Engaging our Stakeholders 

Planning, Improvement and Performance Review Framework 5 

How we have performed – Review of Performance for 2017/18 9 

Improvement Objectives - Performance 2017/18 

Financial Performance 2017/18 

Corporate Plan Objectives - Key Achievements 2017/18 

The Rural Needs Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 

Performance Improvement Areas/Criteria 

Statutory Indicators 59 

Introduction 

Statutory Performance Indicators and Standards 

2017/18 Performance 

Overall Assessment 66 

Publishing Our Performance 66 

How To Get Involved 66

Annual Performance Report 2017/18 

Introduction 

Performance Improvement under 

the Local Government Act 2014 

Part 12 of the Local Government Act 

(NI) 2014 puts in place a framework 

to support continuous improvement 

in the delivery of council services, 

in the context of strategic objectives 

and issues that are important to those 

who receive those services. Councils 

are required to gather information to 

assess improvements in their services 

and to issue a report annually on their 

performance against indicators which 

they have either set themselves or 

that have been set by Government 

Departments. 

• Business and Culture 

• Environment and Regeneration 

• Health and Communities 

• Cross functional Support Services; 

and identified a number of local 

improvement indicators as well as the 

seven statutory performance indicators/ 

standards. 

The Act also places a responsibility on 

councils to make arrangements to secure 

continuous improvement in the exercise 

of their functions. 

What is Improvement? 

‘Improvement’ means more than just 

gains in service output or efficiency, 

or the internal effectiveness of the 

Council. It is about activity that 

enhances the sustainable quality of life 

and environment for ratepayers and 

communities. Derry City and Strabane 

District Council is committed to ensuring 

that our improvement objectives are 

relevant, that the best arrangements 

for delivering them are in place, and 

that we can understand and demonstrate 

the impact on the outcomes for citizens. 

In our 2017/18 Corporate and 

Improvement Plan, Derry City and 

Strabane District Council set out a 

number of improvement objectives/ 

commitments under the headings of: 

Recording and Reporting Progress 

Section 90 of the Act requires each 

council to collect information which 

will allow it to assess its performance 

in achieving its improvement objectives 

and to measure its performance against 

performance indicators or standards 

set by the Department or any other 

indicators or standards which the 

Council chooses to use.


Accordingly, Derry City and Strabane 

District Council collects evidence of 

progress in achieving our improvement 

objectives during the year. Evidence may 

include one or more of the following: 

Performance indicators, both those set by the Council and by 

Government Departments; qualitative information such as citizen 

satisfaction surveys conducted by the Council or by other bodies; 

Progress in introducing or completing programmes, 

facilities or ways of working which contribute to the 

attainment of improvement objectives; 

The outcome of governance or scrutiny 

enquiries and other evidence from Members; 

Other sources of evidence, (including Council’s annual 

governance, value for money and sustainability statements 

etc that appear to be relevant 


will use this information to determine 

if action is required to improve 

performance by assessing, where 

appropriate, its performance against: 

• A previous year’s performance; 

• As far as is practicable, with the 

performance of other councils in 

the exercise of the same or similar 

functions. 

The Council will publish the assessment 

and comparison information, where 

appropriate, relating to its performance 

before 30th September immediately 

following the financial year to which 

it relates.


Engaging Our Stakeholders 

The Council is committed to engaging with our stakeholders, including 

seeking views and keeping people informed about our services and initiatives. 

During 2017/18, we undertook consultations on a number of issues, including: 

Improvement Objectives for 

2017/18 (public consultation) 

• Alley Theatre 

Customer Feedback Survey 

• Community Planning 

Local Plans 

• Templemore Sports Complex 

and Riversdale Leisure Centre 

Consultation - users and non-users 

• Jazz Festival 2017 

(venue feedback) 

• Visitor Services 

Events Survey 

A Co-Design group of local 

representatives from a range of arts 

and culture disciplines has already been 

formed to assist Council officers and 

strategic partners on the development 

of the strategy. 

The group held its first meeting at the 

Ulster Bank offices in the City last week 

and will now host a series of workshops 

from Monday June 26th until Wednesday 

June 28th. 

The sessions are inviting individual artists, 

practitioners, organisations and venues to 

give their input for the strategy for 2017- 

2022 that will be finalised in September. 

• Slow Food Festival 

Exhibitor Feedback 

• Waste Collection Survey 

• Entreprise Week 2017 (business 

feedback) 

• Sport NI – Everybody Active 2020 

• LegenDerry Food Network 

Council seek public’s input 

on arts and culture strategy 

21 June 2017 


have launched a consultation process to 

allow interested parties to have an input 

in shaping the region’s arts and culture 

strategy for the next five years. 

Council seek 

public’s Input


In addition, the Council used its website and social media to keep 

citizens informed. 

2017/18 Figures 

4518 Facebook posts 

501,529 clicks 

1949 Tweets 

265 Instagram posts 

Number of website visits 

2,000,000 

1,500,000 

1,000,000 

500,000 

0 

2015/16 2016/17 2017/18


Planning, Improvement and 

Performance Review Framework 

The Council has many plans at strategic 

and operational levels, some of which 

are based on local needs and others that 

are required as a result of legislation. 

The highest level plan, is the community 

plan, entitled the “Inclusive Strategic 

Growth Plan 2017-2032” for the Derry 

City and Strabane District Council 

area. This strategy recognises that 

community planning is about people 

and organisations working together 

to improve services and to bring about 

sustainable improvements in the quality 

of life of local citizens, businesses 

and other stakeholders. As well as the 

Council, the “Inclusive Strategic Growth 

Plan 2017-2032” will also involve the 

commitment and resources of multiagency 

partnerships whose purpose 

is to deliver the community plan 

objectives. Delivery of the vision 

and objectives set out in the “Inclusive 

Strategic Growth Plan 2017-2032” will 

be supported through the expression 

of objectives, priorities and actions in 

the Corporate Plan of Derry City and 

Strabane District Council (and the 

corporate plans of other stakeholder 

organisations). 

Pending the completion of the Inclusive 

Strategic Growth Plan 2017-2032, 

the Council agreed a Corporate Plan 

for 2015/16 following a wide ranging 

engagement process. The Corporate 

Plan 2017/18 continued to reflect the 

mission and objectives set out in the 

Corporate Plan 2015/16. 

As we did last year, annual Directorate 

Delivery Plans have been prepared to 

help ensure that those priorities set out 

at a corporate level are cascaded to and 

actioned. Work is also being progressed 

on defining individual contributions to 

the delivery of directorate and team 

plans and ultimately the Corporate 

Plan through our evolving employee 

development and appraisal process. 

The Council also prepares an annual 

Improvement Plan containing 

improvement objectives, and monitors 

its performance throughout the year. 

Progress on the achievement against 

these objectives is set out in this report 

and is made available publicly.

Planning, Improvement and Performance Review Framework 6 

In addition to these corporate 

management plans, plans will 

also continue to be developed in 

relation to thematic/service specific 

issues, for example, in relation to our 

capital development programme. 

Furthermore, the Local Development 

Plan (LDP) will guide the future use 

of land in the Council area and inform 

developers, members of the general public, 

communities, government, public bodies, 

representative organisations and other 

interests of the policy framework that is 

used to determine development proposals. 

The LDP will take account of the 

Council’s Community Plan, providing 

a spatial expression to the community 

plan and thereby linking public and 

private sector investment through 

the land use planning system. 

The planning and improvement 

framework outlined above comprising 

the “Inclusive Strategic Growth Plan 

2017-2032”, Corporate Plan, Performance 

Improvement Plan and Directorate Plans 

is augmented by a performance review 

framework which includes: 

At a district wide level a two 

yearly Area Performance 

Report which measures 

the district’s performance 

against the shared 

outcomes set out in the 

Strategic Community Plan. 

At a Council level, an 

Annual Performance 

Report which sets out what 

we have achieved in the 

previous year and how we 

have met our performance 

improvement duty. 

At a directorate level six 

monthly progress reports 

and directorate service 

delivery plans provide 

information on how we 

are performing. 

At an individual level 

annual personal 

development and 

appraisal reviews.


The diagram below shows the key elements of the planning, improvement and 

performance review framework. The highlighted box represents this document 

– the Annual Performance Report. 

Corporate Planning, Improvement and Performance Review Framework (2018/19) 

Derry City and Strabane District Council Area: Plans and Performance Review 

“Inclusive Strategic Growth Plan 2017- 

2032” The District’s integrated plan 

captures the shared outcomes for 

the area. 

Improvement Plan 2018/19 

Improvement Objectives 2018/19 for 

the forthcoming year 

Council: Plans and Performance Review 

Directorate: Plans and Performance Review 

Derry City and Strabane District 

2 yearly Area Performance Report. 

Measures the district’s performance 

against the shared outcomes set out 

in the “Inclusive Strategic Growth Plan 

2017-2032”. 

Derry City and Strabane District Council – Corporate Plan 2018/19 

The Corporate Plan captures the Council’s contribution to the “Inclusive 

Strategic Growth Plan 2017-2032”. The resources required are reflected 

in the Annual Rates Estimates. 


Sets out what we have achieved 

in the previous year and how we 

have met our performance 

improvement duty. 

Directorate Delivery Plans 

Directorate delivery plans demonstrate how the Corporate Plan will be delivered 

and contain details about the work of the Directorate, its resources and how it is 

performing. Supported by six monthly progress reports. 

Personal Performance and Development Reviews 

These capture the individual’s contribution to Directorate and team plans.

Planning, Improvement and Performance Review Framework 8


How we have performed - 

Review of Performance for 2017/18 

This section sets out details of how the Council has performed in 2017/18, in five areas: 

• Progress in delivering our Improvement Objectives identified on our 

Improvement Plan 2017/18 

• Financial performance for 2017/18 

• Key achievements in delivering our Corporate Plan Objectives 

• The Rural Needs Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 

• Progress in relation to performance improvement areas/criteria


Improvement Objectives: Performance 2017/18 

In our Improvement Plan 2017/18 we set ourselves five Improvement Objectives. 

Details of each of these objectives, what we aimed to achieve and the progress 

we made during 2017/18 are set out below: 

Improvement Objective 2017/18 

To prosper through a strong, competitive, entrepreneurial and innovative economy 

Why we selected this as an Improvement Objective 

The focus on the need for employment opportunities came through very strongly 

throughout the consultation process for the Inclusive Strategic Growth Plan 2017-32 

(Community Plan) and hence the improvement target last year was in the area of job 

creation but specifically on one programme, the Business Start Up. 

We decided that this year we would align the improvement objective more closely 

to the community plan and focus on the total job creation actions rather than one 

specific programme. In turn this should improve the quality of life of our citizens. This 

will also link to the economic strategy established by the council and the ongoing 

work on our investment proposition. 

(Further detail on the rationale for selecting this improvement Objective is provided 

in our Corporate and Improvement Plan 2017/18).


Example initiatives taken forward in 

2017/18 related to this Improvement 

Objective. 

All Council Collaboration On 

New NI-Wide Business Start Up 

Programme 


Local Northern Ireland councils have 

embraced the transfer of economic 

development powers from central 

government which included the transfer 

of responsibility for the NI Business 

Start Up Programme (NIBSUP), formerly 

managed by Invest NI. 

Over recent years the well-known ‘Go 

for It’ programme was operated by Invest 

Northern Ireland and going forward this 

programme will now be the collective 

responsibility of all eleven councils. 

29 new jobs for Rural Business 

Investment Scheme 

10 May 2017 

Derry and Strabane Rural Partnership 

has awarded funding which will create 

29 new jobs in the rural area through 

the roll out of its second call of the Rural 

Business Investment Scheme as part of 

the NI Rural Development Programme 

2014-2020. 

The Rural Business Investment Scheme 

was the first scheme to open in 2016/17 

with grants of £323,000 awarded to nine 

businesses in September 2016, and the 

creation of 15.5 jobs. This second call 

for funding opened last October and 

grants of over £470,000 have now been 

awarded to eight projects, creating 29 

new jobs in the rural community. 

Go for It Programme operated 

by Invest Northern Ireland 

Fast track Council course offers 

GCSE maths in just four weeks 


Derry City and Strabane District Council, 

in conjunction with the North West 

Regional College, are offering local 

people the chance to enhance their 

employment and education prospects 

in just four short weeks by studying 

for a GCSE equivalent level qualification 

in mathematics next month. 

The Kickstart Maths Course is open to 

anyone resident in the Council area and 

prepares students to sit City and Guild 

Level 1 and 2 exams in the subject.


Jazz Fest 2017: ‘A colossal success’ 


Once again, organisers of the 2017 City 

of Derry Jazz and Big Band Festival have 

said this year’s festival was a colossal 

success. The festival took place over 

the bank holiday weekend, from Thursday 

27th April until Monday 1st May attracting 

tens of thousands of people. 

Enticing international artists and visitors 

to the city, year on year, the festival, 

organised by Derry City and Strabane 

District Council, continues to grow with 

occupancy rates in local hotels, B&Bs 

and guest houses extremely high each 

year, as thousands of people fill venues, 

streets, bars, hotels and restaurants to 

enjoy the hundreds of performers on 

the programme. During the five days, 

over 50 venues provided over 300 live 

performances to packed audiences. 

Jazz Fest 2017


Oonagh to shine as the 

Face of Fashion Fest 

28 September 2017 

Many teenagers dream of the opportunity 

to follow in the footsteps of Kate Moss by 

signing up with a modelling agency while 

they’re still at school, but for 17-year-old 

Oonagh Canning, that dream is about to 

become a reality. 

The St Cecilia’s pupil has just been 

announced as the Face of Fashion Fest, 

the North West’s biggest showcase of 

the local fashion industry, taking place 

on October 14. 

Oonagh announced the Face 

of Fashion Fest 

The competition was organised by 

Derry City and Strabane District Council, 

working in conjunction with local agency 

Style Academy, and avid fashion fan 

Oonagh will now have the opportunity 

to pursue a career in modelling with 

a year’s contract with the agency. 

Delivery / Achievements 

In our Improvement Plan for 2017/18, we set ourselves a number of target outcomes 

in respect of this Improvement Objective. An overview of what we have done / 

achieved is set out in the table below: 

What did we aim to achieve? 

Target Outcomes 

Business Start Up - Jobs 

Promoted - 140 

Business Boost Programme - 

20 

Rural Business Investment 

Scheme - 17 

Kickstart to work - Into 

Employment - 42 

What we achieved in 2017/18 

139 jobs promoted 

272 jobs promoted 

53.5 jobs promoted 

124 participants into full-time employment 

and 1 into part-time employment 

Delivered 

Overview/Assment 

By focussing on job creation as our Improvement Objective, we are ensuring that this 

key issue is addressed. Improvements are being made each 

year and there has been an increase in the net jobs being created in the Council area. 

Overview Trend/ Assessment: 

Performance Improving



To help people develop long, healthy 

and fulfilling lives by increasing 

participation in high quality leisure, 

sport and healthy living activity. 

Why we selected this 

as an Improvement Objective 

A review of strategic policy for health 

and wellbeing was undertaken through 

the community planning process. This 

included a combination of stakeholder 

consultation; research reviews into the 

correlation between health, physical 

activity, diet and nutrition, and evaluation 

of programme activity undertaken by 

Council and partner organisations. 

The emerging community planning 

strategic and supporting outcomes 

provide key focus areas for health and 

well-being creating the opportunity to 

tailor the delivery of leisure, sport and 

healthy living activities to address: 

• Physical and mental wellbeing 

• Reduced health inequalities including 

addressing chronic conditions 

• Increased physical activity 

• Ageing actively and independently 

• Making the most of the physical 

environment 

• Strengthening collaboration 

for health and wellbeing


An analysis of population and health indicators for the Council area illustrates 

the health status of the area: 

• Projections up to 2037 show an ageing population which peaks at 150,525, 

with an additional 12,000 over 70s and 5,400 fewer under 19s. 

• The area exhibits life expectancy levels on a par with NI but on closer inspection 

the urban deprived super output areas have levels far below those in affluent or 

rural areas. Health outcomes were worse in the most deprived areas than in the 

DCSDC as a whole across all 26 indicators. 

• Some 30,925 people (21%) live in areas defined as deprived. Analysis of super 

output data suggests there are forty output areas, almost half in rural areas, that 

contain deep pockets of multiple deprivation. 

• Within DCSDC all health and wellbeing indicators were worse than the NI average 

with the exception of the standardised admission rate for circulatory disease. 

• Cancer rates, prescriptions for anti-depressants, admission rates to A&E for residents 

from the most deprived areas are all multiples of the rates for NI in non-deprived 

areas. 

Leisure Centre Summer 

Activities for just £1


The NISRA continuous household 

survey 2015/16 considers the levels of 

engagement in culture, arts and leisure 

by adults in NI. The DCSDC analysis 

which combines data across more 

than 1 year indicates that: 

44% of residents had participated 

in sport within the last 12 months; this 

is however lower than the NI average 

of 53% 

47% of residents who engaged in sport 

and physical activity participated at 

least once a week 

At a NI level the rate of participation 

between deprived and non-deprived 

areas varies from 46% in the most 

deprived and increases to 65% in less 

deprived areas 

The compelling body of research 

which demonstrates the value of sport 

and physical activity is articulated in 

summary by the Chief Medical Officer 

recommendations for exercise. 

75 mins or more of vigorous activity 

or a combination of both moderate 

and vigorous activity per week is 

recommended. However, the NI health 

survey (2013) identified that only 53% 

met recommended levels. Of those 

73% reported participation in moderate 

intensity aerobic activities and 40% in 

vigorous intensity activities. 



Objective 

Council’s leisure centres offering 

activities for just £1 this summer 


Derry City and Strabane District Council’s 

Leisure Centres are giving local young 

people an extra incentive to get out 

and active during the school holidays 

with the return of their popular £1 

Summer initiative. 

The deal offers a range of activities 

including swimming, squash, table 

tennis, badminton, five a side football 

and basketball for just £1 per session 

for under-18s in the months of July 

and August. 

Council offer local youngsters 

a feast of summer sports camps 

17 May 2017 


have launched an exciting programme of 

sports camps to get local youngsters out 

of the house and active at their leisure 

facilities during the school holidays. 

(Further detail on the rationale for 

selecting this improvement Objective 

is provided in our Corporate and 

Improvement Plan 2017/18) 

Local youngsters join exciting 

and new Sports Camps


Last chance to enter as Strabane 

Lifford Half Marathon and 5k 

edges closer and 5k 

24 April 2017 

A limited number of places remain 

available for next month’s Strabane 

Lifford Half Marathon and 5k before 

entries officially close this Sunday 

April 30th. One of the biggest events 

on the local athletics calendar, the races 

will return for a fourth successive year 

on Sunday May 14th. 

the local hinterland when the Sperrins 

and Killeter Walking Festival returns 

on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th 

September 2017. The popular festival, 

organised by Derry City and Strabane 

District Council in conjunction with 

local adventure company Far and Wild, 

will host a total of six walks over the 

two days, ranging from easy family 

friendly strolls to moderate treks 

and challenging hill walks all led by 

professional walking guides. 

The cross border event has proven 

popular with seasoned and novice 

runners alike in recent years with runners 

from all over Ireland and beyond joining 

the sizeable local entry in the 2,000 

strong field. 

2017 Sperrins and Killeter 

Walking Festival 

Strabane Lifford 

Half Marathon 

Mayor encourages walkers to 

register now for 2017 Sperrins 

and Killeter Walking Festival 

20 July 2017 

Walkers of all ages and abilities will 

be heading for the hills and exploring 

Council invite Strabane sports 

clubs to hire pitches for 2017/18 

league season 

11 July 2017 


are inviting soccer, GAA and Rugby 

clubs in the Strabane area to apply 

now to secure their playing pitches for 

the 2017/18 league season before the 

deadline of Friday July 21st.

How we have performed – Review of Performance for 2017/18 18 

£1.4m 3G multi-sport facility 

for Melvin progressing well 

16 January 2018 

Work on the new £1.4m multi-sport 3G 

facility at Melvin in Strabane is progressing 

well with works expected to be completed 

by early 2018, Derry City and Strabane 

District Council has revealed this week. 

Council has committed £1.4m towards 

replacing the existing sand synthetic 

pitch and grass football pitch with a 

new multi-sport surface that will primarily 

cater for football, rugby and Gaelic sport 

in the Strabane area. While some minor 

operational issues have caused some 

minor delays to the works programme 

it is expected to be completed early 

this year. 

Mayor hails Brandywell Regeneration 

Project Council Investment 

Mayor hails Brandywell 

Regeneration Project Council 

investment 

26 February 2018 

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District 

Council Cllr Maolíosa M c Hugh says the £7m 

Brandywell Regeneration Project marks a 

significant investment and commitment 

by Council to improve sports provision 

and the health and well-being of the City 

and District. 

Pitches hired for 2017/18 

league season






What did we aim 

to achieve? 


Peace 1V Shared Space 

Stage 2 Business Case 

Completed 

Progress design and 

development 

of Council’s Strategic 

Community Centre 

Investment Programme - 

(Ballymagroarty/Hazelbank, 

Top of the Hill, Galliagh CC, 

Shantallow CC, Culmore CC, 

Irish St CC, Lincoln Courts, 

Glenview CC) 

Maintain leisure user visitor 

numbers (paid visits) of 

917,735 visits per year 

Achieve Everybody 

Active targets of 12,000 

participants per year for 

targeted programmes 

Lead business case planning 

and design process for: 

Riversdale Leisure Centre, 

Templemore Sports 

Complex, Waterside Shared 

Village, Prehen Pontoon 

Development, Daisyfield/ 

Brandywell Sports Centre 

Development, 2 SIF Pitch 

Projects (Leafair and 

Corrody Road) 


Peace 1V Shared Space Stage 2 Business 

Case Completed for Waterside Shared 

Village at former Clondermott school site and 

shared space funding application for circa 

£6.9 undergoing final assessment 

3 new/refurbished community centres 

completed 

(Irish Street/Glebe/Victoria Bridge). 

New community centre build progressed to 

contractor select list appointment. (Lincoln 

Courts). 

3 New Capital Build Community Centres 

progressed through the Design Stages 

(Galliagh/Shantallow/TOTH). 

940,009 visits 

11,230 participants recorded 

Design team appointment for leisure centres 

in Strabane and at Templemore in place. 

Daisyfield/Brandywell Sports Centre 

Development design team 

appointments underway. 

2 SIF Pitch Projects (Leafair and Corrody 

Road) ready to commence 

Delivered



to achieve? 


Open new Brandywell 

Stadium for use 

Progress Construction work 

with new Melvin 3G Pitch 

Progress Melvin Multi-Sport 

Hub Development, progress 

with design work and apply 

for funding to Sport NI 

Delivery of District Wide 

sports camps 

Deliver a District wide 

Physical Activity Referral 

Programme (PARP) Model 

at x3 Tier 1 sites and achieve 

450 participation completion 

rate targeting designated 

special populations 

Roll-out of Athlete 

Support Membership 

Delivery of ‘Get Out Get 

Active’ Disability Programme 

Other 


£7 million Brandywell Stadium Capital 

Development opened February 2018. 

New Melvin 3G pitch opened Spring 2018 

(with investment of £1.2m; arena pitch 

temporary changing facilities £70k in place) 

Initial design concept developed for Melvin 

Multi-Sport Hub Development completed 

and Sport NI funding application prepared 

Delivery of 6 seasonal District Wide sports 

camps with 250 participants. 

Physical Activity Referral Programme (PARP) 

targeting designated special populations with 

roll out across 3 Tier 1 leisure centre sites and 

pre and post assessments undertaken. 

385 participants completed 

Roll-out of Athlete Support Membership with 

60 memberships allocated and 14 bursaries 

awarded. 

Delivery of ‘Get out Get Active’ Disability 

Programme with 1100 participant 

opportunities created. 

• £120,000 secured from Sport NI for 

Prehen Pontoon Development 

• McMillan sports co ordinator for the Move 

More programme appointed 

• Peace 1V sports development programme 

developed 

• 3,000 children participating in structured 

swimming programme 

Delivered


Overview / Assessment 

The overall trend in progressing 

delivery of our healthy living performance 

improvement objective in 2017/18 has seen 

a growth in delivery outputs from both an 

infrastructural development and 

participation perspective. 

The potential future benefits from 

recently constructed facilities at the 

Brandywell and Melvin, along with 

ongoing construction at the Leafair 

Pavilion are laying the pathway for 

future growth in participation and 

improved outcomes for local people. 

From a participation perspective, 

increased visits have been made to 

Council leisure centres, with 940,009 

visits this year and the continued 

delivery of high quality initiatives 

including the Everybody Active 

and GP Physical Referral Programmes 

continuing to attract new participants 

annually (11,615). Trends towards improved 

healthy living outcomes remain strong 

with increased programming 

opportunities including the MacMillan 

Move More programme, opening up 

new opportunities for cancer survivors. 

Community centre provision within 

localities provides for much needed basic 

services and healthy living activity with 

3 new facilities developed; facilities at 

Top of the Hill, Shantallow and Galliagh 

at advanced stages; and further planned 

investment across the City are in the early 

planning/design phases. 

Overall Trend/ Assessment: 

Performance Improving 

Significant progress and investment 

continues to be made in terms of 

design development, business case 

reviews and targeting external funding 

to deliver further phases of the 

infrastructural plan. Notably this includes 

new strategic leisure provision in the City 

at Templemore and in Strabane Town, 

Waterside Shared Village, Corrody Road 

pitches and Prehen Pontoon. 

Up to £1000 offered to local 

cycling club



To protect and enhance the environment 

through creating and supporting a 

culture of environmental stewardship 

Why we selected this as an 

Improvement Objective 

This improvement objective relates 

directly to the Strategic Growth Plan 

objective that we live sustainably – 

protecting the environment, under 

the theme of Physical and Environmental 

Regeneration. This was a key theme 

that emerged during the significant 

engagement process carried out as part of 

the development of the Strategic Growth 

Plan. The improvement objective will allow 

us to pull together the actions that will 

demonstrate that we are protecting and 

enhancing our local environment and the 

partnership approach that we have taken 

to maximise effect. 







Objective 

Active Travel Grant of up to £1,000 

on offer to local groups 


Organisations in the North West are being 

offered the chance to avail of grants from 


and the Active and Sustainable Travel 

Forum to host events and training sessions 

that encourage travel by foot or bicycle. 

The Active Travel Grant offers funding of 

up to £1000 for events or training and 

is open to organisations such as walking 

and cycling clubs, schools, universities, 

community groups and employers on a not 

for profit basis. 

Council green light for walking trail 

at Plumbridge and Woodland trail 

at Donemana 


Members of Derry City and Strabane 

District Council’s Governance and 

Strategic Planning Committee agreed 

to commit £31,000 in Council match 

funding towards the development of 

a walking trail at Balix Hill, Plumbridge, 

and £125,000 of match funding towards 

the development of a new woodland trail 

in Donemana. 

Recycle Week kicks off at the 

Guildhall and Alley Theatre 



Council held the first of its events to mark 

Recycling Week on Monday with ‘What 

Goes In My Bin?’ Information events 

at the Guildhall and Alley Theatre. 

Recycle Week 2017


Council keen to explore Circular 

Economy Zero Waste Strategy 

for the District 


Zero Waste North West and Derry 


held a Roundtable discussion last week 

at the City Hotel, Derry to inform the 

development of a Zero Waste Circular 

Economy Strategy for the Council area. 

Representatives from over 20 

organisations from the private, 

community and public sector discussed 

the opportunities provided by fully 

embracing the Circular Economy and in 

particular the potential for employment 

creation locally, linked directly to the 

sustainable management of products, 

materials and wastes. 

Council’s innovative tree planting 

scheme aims to cut air pollution 



Council, in partnership with the Public 

Health Agency and the North West 

Regional College, have launched a 

unique tree planting scheme to mark 

the registration of significant life events 

in the Council area. 

The Life Tree Project will see every 

birth, death and marriage registered 

in Council’s District Registration Offices 

in Derry and Strabane marked by the 

planting of a native tree sapling as part 

of a wider strategy to improve air quality 

and the public’s mental health. 

Mayor performs official opening 

of Culmore Country Park 


Mayor of Derry City and Strabane 

District Council, Councillor Maolíosa 

McHugh, officially opened the new 

Culmore Country Park on Saturday. 

The former landfill site has been 

restored and redeveloped into park 

and nature reserve with stunning views 

of Lough Foyle at a cost of £7 million. 

Saturday’s opening ceremony was 

followed by a family fun day and also 

marked the start of an engagement 

with the public to hear their views 

on the future plans for the site. 

Life Tree Project







to achieve? 


We will have 

increased levels 

of household 

recycling and 

reduced the 

amount of waste 

sent to landfill 

We will have 

continued to 

develop a more 

integrated 

and effective 

planning and 

building control 

system which 

enables and 

encourages 

the provision of 

quality housing 

in sustainable 

urban and rural 

neighbourhoods 

We will have 

improved the 

opportunity 

for active travel 

and modal shift 

by progressing 

a number 

of greenway 

delivery projects 


Our recycling levels have increased from 40.5% in 2016/17 

to 43.3% in 2017/18. The amount of biodegradable 

municipal waste that is being landfilled continues to reduce 

from 13,242 tonnes in 2016/17 to 12,074 tonnes in 2017/18, 

however, 2017/18 saw an increase in the total amount of 

local authority collected municipal waste which has been 

collected by the Council. 

Council were the first Council in Northern Ireland to adopt 

a Zero Waste Circular Economy Strategy supported by 

community partners Zero Waste North West. 

An increase of 24% in planning decisions issued, a 29% 

increase in approved applications with an overall approval 

rate of 96.2%. 

Local Development Plan (LDP) – the LDP Preferred 

Papers Option (POP) was published in May 2017 followed 

by a consultation period from June to August 2017. 

In the 11 months to the end of February 2018, the Building 

Control section received applications with a construction 

value in the region of £166 million. 

Approved and issued the highest number of major 

residential developments in Northern Ireland, 6 so far in the 

first two quarters of 2017/18 and 9 which was the highest 

in NI for last year, culminating to a total of 1078 dwelling 

units, 835 Social and 243 Private. Many of these are also 

accompanied by legal planning agreements securing 

comprehensive development and facilitating associated 

infrastructure and open space in order to deliver sustainable 

communities. 

Completion of Gransha Greenway Phase 4 through 

the Gransha Estate. Officers are currently working with 

WHSCT to extend this route beyond the Gransha Estate. 

Planning permission secured for £1.2m worth 

of greenways at Clooney and Kilfennan 

Recruitment of officer team and appointment of design 

team to take forward the €18m North West Greenways 

project – 46.5km of greenway across 3 cross border routes. 

Awarded Active Travel Workplace of the Year at the UK 

Healthy Streets Awards. 

Delivered



to achieve? 


We will have 

increased the 

opportunity for 

outdoor play 

through the 

delivery of 5 

play parks 

We will have 

supported 

communities who 

want to engage 

in environmental 

stewardship 

through 

community 

clean ups and 

environmental 

improvement 

schemes 

Other 


Completion of two play parks at Brandywell (£700k) 

and Ballyarnett (£600k) and the commencement 

of £2m worth of works on site at play parks 

in Kilfennan and Ballymagroarty. 

Opening of the new £520k play park at Strathfoyle. 

The newly opened £5.7m Brooke Park achieved a number 

of accolades including: shortlisted for a National Association 

of Public Sector Excellence Award for Best Housing, 

Regeneration or New Build Initiative; highly commended 

at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Awards for 

Community Benefit and awarded a Green Flag Award by 

Keep NI Beautiful. 

Completion of £400k of public realm works 

at St Columb’s Park House. 

Progressed the Climate Project in conjunction with project 

partners – the acronym stands for Community Led Initiative 

Managing and Transforming the Environment with the 

project supporting the region’s readiness for anticipated 

climate change. 

Awarded Britain in Bloom Gold Award, awarded Best Kept 

City in Northern Ireland at Best Kept Awards, awarded 

winner in City category of Ulster in Bloom Awards. 

Completion of the shopfront enhancement scheme 

‘ReStore’ on Clooney Terrace & Strand Road, and 

the submission of a £250k Revitalisation shopfront 

enhancement scheme for Strabane town centre. 

Worked with two rural communities in Victoria Bridge 

and Magheramason to enter the Pride of Place Awards. 

Victoria Bridge were awarded a Pride of Place Award. 

• The ‘Best Place in Northern Ireland Award’ was 

received from Royal Town Planning Institute for 

Derry/ Londonderry for historic core Peace Bridge 

and Ebrington. 

• Planning permission secured in respect 

of the proposed Ballynagard Social Housing 

& Community Regeneration Project. 

• Council appointed a Built Heritage Officer as part of a 

joint initiative with Department for Communities’ Historic 

Environment Division to develop a heritage strategy and 

encourage pride in local built heritage. 

Delivered



This improvement objective relates 

directly to the Strategic Growth Plan 

objective that we live sustainably 

protecting and enhancing the 

environment. During the year we 

significantly increased levels of 

household recycling from 40.5% 

to 43.3% and reduced the amount 

of waste sent to landfill. 

We continued to develop a more 

integrated and effective planning 

and building control system and 

supported the provision of quality 

housing in sustainable urban and 

rural neighbourhoods. We improved 

the opportunity for active travel and 

modal shift by progressing a number 

of greenway projects including the 

Clooney Greenway and the North 

West Greenways Project. 

We increased the opportunity for 

outdoor play by delivery of 5 new play 

parks. We supported a large number 

of communities by the substantial 

refurbishment of three existing 

community centres, developing designs 

for a further six new centres and by 

engaging in environmental stewardship 

through community clean-ups and 

environmental improvement schemes. 




Improvment Objective 2017/18 

To deliver improved customer satisfaction 

by improving customer support services 

and processes 



The Council’s mission is to deliver improved 

social, economic and environmental 

outcomes for everyone. This is supported by 

corporate values, including to be a centre of 

excellence and innovation with a clear focus 

on outcomes and delivery. 

In delivering on these aspirations, Derry City 

and Strabane District Council recognises 

that today’s citizens and stakeholders expect 

a high level of services and to be able to 

deal with the Council across a multitude of 

communications channels, including phone, 

e-mail, the Web, mobile devices, social 

media, as well as in person at our offices. 

Citizens and customers are at the heart of 

what we do as a public service organisation. 

Consequently, we need to continuously 

strive to provide more-responsive services, 

better collaboration with customers, 

increased transparency to the general public, 

and more-proactive efforts to improve 

customer satisfaction. 

(Further detail on the rationale for selecting 

this Improvement Objective is provided 

in our Corporate and Improvement Plan 

2017/18) 

Example initiatives taken forward in 2017/18 

related to this Improvement Objective 

Consumers get to have their say! 


Residents in Derry City and Strabane District 

Council area will soon get to have their say 

on the consumer issues that concern them, 

thanks to The Consumer Council 

Residents have their say 

which is staging a ‘Consumer Parliament’, 

in partnership with Derry City and Strabane 

District Council, at the Guildhall on Friday, 

23 March. 

Community-led meetings to be held 

to provide ongoing support after 

floods 

20 October 2017 

A series of community-based meetings are 

to be held in Eglinton, Drumahoe and rural 

areas to offer continued support to those 

affected by the recent floods. The decision 

was made today following a multi-agency 

meeting that was facilitated by Derry City 

and Strabane District Council to get a 

collective response to the ongoing recovery 

operation that has been taking place since 

the floods last August. 

Alley Theatre launches new 

user friendly website 


Regular visitors to the Alley Theatre in 

Strabane will be delighted with the launch 

of a new more accessible website which will 

make it even easier for customers to source 

information and book tickets. 

The new improved site will ensure a hassle 

free experience for users as well as the 

option of printing tickets from home. 

The site also features the latest programme 

information, as well as up to date details 

on workshops, exhibitions and visitor 

information services.






What did we aim to 

achieve? 


Achieve more 

efficient call handling 

response times. 

Greater staff 

awareness 

of policies relating to 

customer care. 

We will have 

improved the 

opportunity for 

active travel and 

modal shift by 

progressing a 

number of greenway 

delivery projects. 

Evidence of 

customer satisfaction 

details being collated 

for at least two 

service areas. 

Achieve “Louder 

Than Words” Charter 

for front line service 

areas – starting with 

Guildhall. 

Develop a guide 

for staff when 

organising meetings 

and events to ensure 

accessibility 

and inclusion. 

Increased levels of 

positive feedback 

from those achieved 

in 2016/17. 


Achieved target call handling response times 

in the majority of service areas. 

Improved staff awareness of policies relating to 

customer care. (Staff who attended training courses 

in relation to customer services, customer care and 

telephone services reported having improved their 

knowledge / understanding). 

Completion of Gransha Greenway Phase 4 through 

the Gransha Estate. Officers are currently working 

with WHSCT to extend this route beyond the Gransha 

Estate. Planning permission secured for £1.2m worth of 

greenways at Clooney and Kilfennan. 

Recruitment of officer team and appointment of design 

team to take forward the €18m North West Greenways 

project – 46.5km of greenway across 3 cross border 

routes. 

Awarded Active Travel Workplace of the Year at the UK 

Healthy Streets Awards. 

Collated evidence of customer satisfaction over 

a range of service areas / events. Information is 

provided in Section 1 under the heading ‘Engaging 

Our Stakeholders’. 

Implemented the recommendations to Adapt NI audit 

to promote accessibility for people with a disability 

(in lieu of seeking accreditation via the “Louder Than 

Words” Charter). 

Developed a guide for staff when organising meetings 

and events to ensure accessibility and inclusion. 

Increased levels of positive public feedback from those 

achieved in 2016/17 (see graph) 

Achieved high satisfaction levels for the provision 

of Elected Member support services and for the 

provision of Irish Language Services. 

Delivered


Feedback Trends 

100 

50 

0 

2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 

No. Stage 1 Complaints Received 

No. Complaints Received 

No. Stage 2 Formal Complaints Received 


The Council has delivered against 

the commitments it had identified 

in its Improvement Plan 2017/18 

and this has already shown some 

impacts in terms of the effectiveness 

of its processes. 

The feedback trends indicate increased 

levels of compliments and complaints. 

This can be attributable to a range 

of factors including better reporting/ 

recording, greater visibility of the 

Council’s feedback processes and/or 

more engagement between the Council 

and its stakeholders. 

Further work will be taken forward 

to improve the effectiveness of how 

we are dealing with feedback and 

the outcomes achieved. 





To support Council’s investment 

and capital aspirations by developing 

(1) a fully scoped efficiency plan 

for reinvestment in Council’s growth 

objectives and (2) a funding strategy 

for Council’s Strategic Inclusive Growth 

Plan (including capital aspirations) 

once finalised 



This Council is the least wealthy 

Council of the new 11 Councils in Northern 

Ireland evidenced by its reliance on Rates 

Support Grant and highest unemployment 

and deprivation levels. To address this, 

this Council has a very ambitious capital 

plan forming part of its Community Plan. 

Council has already made a statement 

of intent during the 2016/17 rates process 

by ring-fencing the majority of efficiency 

savings realised to date through the 

merger of the 2 legacy Councils for 

investment in growth as opposed to 

passing on to ratepayers in the form 

of reductions. 

To achieve Council’s significant capital 

aspirations will obviously require longer 

term financial planning and forecasting 

to ensure Council is aware of its available 

resources to fund its ambitions as set out 

in Inclusive Growth Plan 2017-2032, along 

with a significant focus on funding both in 

terms of maintenance of existing funding 

streams and securing new revenue 

streams. 





Example initiatives taken 

forward in 2017/18 related 

to this Improvement Objective. 

Members approve allocation of 

funding to advance with Council’s 

Capital Projects 



District Council’s Strategic Governance 

Committee gave their approval for 

Council to proceed with £2.152m of 

funding to advance with its ambitious 

capital development projects across the 

City and District. Members attending the 

monthly meeting at the Guildhall today, 

were given an update on the status of 

current projects completed by the new 

Council to the value of £35.146m, of which 

£16.156m was funded externally. They were 

also provided with details of a fully funded 

investment programme totalling £41.196m 

invested in projects that are approved 

but require £770,000 additional Council 

support to complete, and given 

a full report on £213m worth of projects 

that Council are currently developing 

and progressing. 

Council to progress discussions 

for major investment through 

City Deal 




Strategic Planning Committee today 

endorsed recommendations to take 

active steps to further progress a City 

Deal for the City and region.


PEACE On Earth - PEACE IV 

European funding benefits 

local communities 

15 December 2017 

The December snow has brought with 

it a flurry of PEACE IV project launches 

to local communities. 

With over £2 million worth of contracts 

recently awarded to local community 

groups for cross-community reconciliation 

work, the funding from the Special EU 

Programmes Body under Derry City 

and Strabane District Council’s PEACE 

IV Programme is already beginning to 

make a positive impact on the ground. 

PEACE on Earth Project 

Launches 

Council funding allocated 

to progress with Ebrington 

Greenway plans 




Strategic Planning Committee earlier 

this week gave their approval to release 

capital funds to support the Department 

for Infrastructure’s funding application 

to SEUPB under the INTERREG Va 

programme for the delivery of the 

Ebrington Greenway as part of the wider 

North West Multi-Modal Transport Hub 

project. 

This project will promote cross-border 

intermodal and sustainable mobility in 

the North-West region which will assist 

residents and visitors to move away 

from car journeys and towards active 

and sustainable travel through walking, 

cycling and using public transport.



In our Improvement Plan for 2017/18, we set ourselves a number of target outcomes in respect of this 

Improvement Objective. An overview of what we have done / achieved is set out in the table below: 

What did 

we aim to 

achieve? 

Target 

Outcomes 

Phase 3 

efficiency 

plan 

completed 

Completion 

of investment 

proposition 

5 year 

rates plan 

for capital 

development 

to be agreed 


Realised recurrent efficiency savings of £2.145m. This along with 

other income generation and new rates investment has enabled 

growth investment in Council’s strategic growth plan aspirations 

as follows: - 

• Capital financing provision £1.495m 

• Tier 2 festivals additional funding £130k 

• Festivals and events team and major festivals fund £694k 

• Third party capital projects fund £75k 

• Community services- rural staffing and additional grant aid £167k 

• Tourism £55k 

• Cultural venues £40k 

TOTAL £2.656m 

Work has been completed to identify Council’s key strategic sites 

and their investment value and potential. This will form part of 

Council’s City Deal proposal. 

As a result of the new capital financing provision, the new 

Council has now completely delivered and progressed the 

following capital investment: 

Council 

investment 

(£m) 

External 

funding 

secured (£m) 

Total 

investment 

(£m) 

Projects completed 21.20 15.77 36.97 

Projects in progress 12.89 27.20 40.09 

and fully financed 

Projects in progress 6.40 12.50 18.90 

and not fully 

financed 

Further fund 

25.0 est TBC 25.00 

available for capital 

investment 

Total 65.49 55.47 120.96 

Delivered 


£2.145 million of efficiencies have been fully realised representing almost 4% of Council’s total 

net expenditure budget. This is a significant achievement. Council will continue to work to 

identify further efficiencies going forward. 

Over £120 million of capital projects have been fully funded as a result of Council’s capital 

investment programme facilitated through Council’s efficiency programme. 

Overall Trend/ Assessment: Objective Achieved


Financial Performance 2017/18 

For the year ended 31st March 2018, Council approved a net expenditure 

budget as part of the rates process of £56,163,211. 

The sources of funding were as follows:- 

£ 

Rates income (including de-rating grant) 51,615,800 

Rates Support Grant 3,756,990 

Transferred Functions Grant 340,421 

Reserves (Forecast loss) 450,000 

Total expenditure budget 56,163,211 

As set out in the table below, the Council has delivered** a surplus of £103K in 2017/18 

as compared to a budget loss of £450k (£553k ahead of budget). 

Area Budget 

Revised Annual 

Budget 

Net Expenditure Surplus 

Cross Cutting Corporate 

Services 

Governance, Finance & Legal 1,800,500 1,689,718 110,782 

Chief Executive (including 

846,987 711,216 135,771 

Legacy & Comms) 

Human Resources 732,000 724,277 7,723 

Performance & Improvement 1,759,763 1,646,995 112,769 

Council 1,264,100 1,144,990 119,110 

6,403,350 5,917,196 486,154

Financial Performance 2017/18 34 

Area Budget 

Revised Annual 

Budget 

Net Expenditure Surplus 

Health & Community 

Director of Health & 

445,390 424,070 21,320 

Community 

Health & Community 

2,096,014 1,861,937 234,077 

Wellbeing 

Community Development & 

6,903,768 6,664,546 239,222 

Leisure 

9,445,172 8,950,553 494,619 

Business & Culture 

Director of Business Culture 239,900 250,616 (10,716) 

Off street car parking (657,700) (842,623) 184,923 

Business 1,780,938 1,705,774 75,164 

Culture 5,964,451 5,871,238 93,213 

7,327,589 6,985,005 342,584 

Environment & Regeneration 

Director of Environment & 

494,900 487,049 7,851 

Regeneration 

Planning 964,500 753,979 210,521 

Capital Development & 

978,800 798,600 180,200 

Building Control 

Environment 18,704,179 19,013,686 (309,506) 

21,142,379 21,053,314 89,065 

Capital end loans 6,953,983 6,424,218 529,765 

City of Derry Airport 2,650,768 2,750,263 (99,495) 

Sundry (1,393,886) 847,606 (2,241,492) 

Bank interest and charges (16,500) (25,953) 9,453 

Total net expenditure 52,512,854 52,902,202 (389,348) 

Rates Support Grant (3,756,990) (3,607,115) (149,875) 

Rates (incl. derating grant) (52,615,801) (53,708,132) 1,092,331 

Transferring Functions Grant (340,421) (340,421) 0 

Transfers from Reserves 4,650,357 4,650,357 0 

Total Funding (52,062,855) (53,005,311) 942,456 

Total 450,000 (103,108) 553,108


A breakdown of the savings is set out in the table below: 

Savings Details £000 

Directorate service outturn:- 

Cross cutting corporate services - mainly due to unfilled posts, salary 

367 

recoupment, performance audit fee savings and building energy savings 

and prudent financial management. This has been offset by £101k of costs 

in relation to the European Capital of Culture Bid. A number of efficiencies 

have been identified in this area following amalgamation and have been 

reflected in 2018/19 budget and efficiency plan. 

Council - savings on phone costs, travel costs and conferences. Efficiencies have 119 

been identified and removed as part of 2018/19 rates process and Council’s 

efficiency plan. 

Health & Community - mainly due to Environmental Health staff savings 

494 

and additional Grant Income for Tobacco & Food Control. Efficiencies have 

now been reflected in 2018/19 budgets. There is also an underspend of £239k 

in Community Development & Leisure. This is due to closure of Brandywell 

Stadium (£56k), additional Sports Development Grant (£67k), running costs 

of Leisure Centres (£81k) and savings in Community Centre running costs (£33k). 

£100k has been set aside for investing in new Spin Bikes across the Leisure 

Centres and £159k has been set aside for investment in Riversdale LC and 

other commitments. 

Business & Culture - Surplus in Off Street car parking of £185k due to increased 342 

income and savings in gritting costs (£49k) and Contracts costs (64k). Savings 

of £75k in Business due to unfilled post and PEACE match funding savings. 

Savings in Culture of £93k due to Marketing savings (£81k) and Tourism 

projects (£63k). 

Environment & Regeneration - Savings in Planning £211k due to increased 

89 

income (£175k) and administration savings (before £35k). Building Control 

income has continued to increase and has exceeded budget by £178k. 

In Environment, Parks Development savings (£73k) have been offset 

by overspends in Street Cleansing (£167k) due to sickness costs, Refuse 

Collection wages costs (£87k) and Waste Management costs (£151k) 

for maintenance at Recycling Centres and sickness costs. 

Total Directorate Savings 1,412 

Other areas:- 

Capital and loan charges and other costs - normally savings arise due to budget (1,801) 

not yet being fully committed and projects committed from budget which 

will not be complete until subsequent years. In this year these funds and those 

arising from Directorate savings have been allocated through this Committee 

to cover severance costs (£418k), flooding repairs costs (£1,050k), City Growth 

Deal progression (£200k), ESF Match Funding (£200k), Foras Na Gaeilge 

Match Funding (before £97k), NIEA Heritage Match Funding (£58k), Waste 

Management Campaign Manager (£50k). 

Positive rates and de-rating grant finalisation 

942 

as advised by Land & Property Services 

Total Council Saving as Compared to Budgeted Loss £450k 553


During the year, the Council has 

adopted a prudent financial management 

approach with a focus on driving 

efficiencies to fund Council’s growth 

ambitions as identified in the Strategic 

Inclusive Growth Plan (Community Plan) 

and Council’s Capital Plan. 

It is noted that the combined picture 

of Council’s positive rates finalisation 

(£2.09m), planning income exceeding 

budget (£175k) and building control 

income exceeding budget (£178k) 

indicates positive growth and 

development activity in the Council 

area, which is key to delivering the 

objectives set out in the Strategic 

Inclusive Growth Plan. 

In addition, whilst a number of significant 

savings have been realised, there are 

a number of known commitments and 

priorities, to the value of £2,250k, which 

have been identified. These have either 

been paid during the year or provided 

for in reserves and the remaining surplus 

of £103k will be carried into the Council’s 

District Fund. This will ensure that the 

Council has a District Fund within the 

recommended threshold of between 

5% and 7.5% of net expenditure. This 

will result in the following District Fund 

balance being carried forward:- 

Opening District Fund balance 4,693 

Surplus 103 

Closing District Fund 4,796 

Earmarked to fund 2018/19 rates £300k + £300K and 2019/20 rates £150k (750) 

Available District Fund 4,046 

Net expenditure per 2018/19 Rates Estimates 58,541 

District Fund % 6.91% 

** This outturn is subject to external audit with the final accounts being presented by NIAO 

to Audit Committee by 30th September 2018.


Corporate Plan Objectives - 

Key Achievements 2017/18 

Our Corporate Plan 2017/18 identified four 

four strategic strategic objectives: objectives: 

• Protect our environment and and deliver 

physical regeneration 

• Grow our business and facilitate cultural 

cultural development development 

• Promote healthy communities. 

• Provide effective and facilitative cross cross 

functional services 

These corporate objectives align align to to the the 

three pillars of of the “Inclusive Strategic 

Growth Plan 2017-2032”, namely 

environmental wellbeing, economic 

wellbeing and social wellbeing. 

Key achievements, under under each each of the 

Corporate of the Corporate Plan Objectives Plan Objectives are highlighted 

below: are highlighted below: 

Objective: 

Objective: Protect our environment 

and deliver physical regeneration 

Protect • The newly our environment 

opened £57m Brooke 

and Park deliver achieved physical a number regeneration of accolades 

• The including: newly opened £57m Brooke 

Park 

• Being 

achieved 

shortlisted 

a number 

for a 

of 

National 

accolades 

including: 

Association of Public Sector 

• Being Excellence shortlisted Award for for a Best National Housing, 

Association Regeneration of Public or New Sector Build 

Excellence Initiative Award for Best Housing, 

• Regeneration Being highly or commended New Build Initiative 

• Being the Royal highly Institute commended of Chartered at 

the Surveyors Royal Institute Awards of for Chartered Community 

Surveyors Benefit Awards for Community 

• Benefit Being awarded a Green Flag 

• Being Award awarded by Keep a NI Green Beautiful Flag Award 

by Keep NI Beautiful 

• Opening of the new £520k play park 

at Strathfoyle 

• Completion Opening of the of £400k new £520k of public realm 

works play park at St at Columb’s Strathfoyle Park House 

• Completion of £400k two play of parks public at realm 

Brandywell works at St Columb’s (£700k) and Park Ballyarnett House 

• 

(£600k) 

Completion 

and 

of 

the 

two 

commencement 

play parks at 

of 

£2m 

Brandywell 

worth 

(£700k) 

of works 


on site 

Ballyarnett 

at play 

parks 

(£600k) 

in Kilfennan 

and the commencement 

and Ballymagroarty 

• Completion of £2m worth of of construction works site of at new play 

£7m parks football in Kilfennan stadium and and Ballymagroarty 

separate 

• 

dog 

Completion 

track at 

of 

Brandywell 

construction of new 

• Roll £7m out football and promotion stadium and of separate food waste 

collection dog track at service. Brandywell At present more 

• than Roll out 80% and of promotion households of have food a waste food 

waste collection collection service. service At present and plans more are 

in than place 80% to of ensure households the service have a is food rolled 

out waste to collection the remaining service households and plans by are 

the in place end to of ensure May 2018 the service is rolled 

• Completion out to the remaining of Gransha households Greenway by the 

Phase end of 4 May through 2018 the Gransha Estate 

• Officers Completion are of currently Gransha working Greenway with 

WHSCT Phase 4 through to extend the this Gransha route beyond Estate 

the Officers Gransha are currently Estate working with 

• Planning WHSCT to permission extend this secured route beyond for £12m 

worth the Gransha of greenways Estate at Clooney and 

• Kilfennan Planning permission secured for 

• Recruitment £12m worth of of greenways officer team at Clooney and 

appointment and Kilfennanof design team to 

• take Recruitment forward of the officer €18m team North and West 

Greenways appointment project of Design - 465km Team of to 

greenway take forward across the €18m 3 cross North border West routes 

• Progressed Greenways project the Climate - 465km Project of in 

conjunction greenway across with 3 project cross border partners routes – 

• the Progressed acronym the stands Climate for Project Community in 

Led conjunction Initiative with Managing project and partners – 

Transforming the acronym stands the Environment for Community with 

the Led project Initiative supporting Managing the and region’s 

readiness Transforming anticipated the Environment climate with 

change the project supporting the region’s 

• Awarded readiness Britain for anticipated in Bloom climate Gold Award, 

awarded change Best Kept City in Northern 

Ireland at Best Kept Awards, awarded


winner in City category of Ulster in 

Bloom Awards 

• Appointment of the Council’s first 

District-wide Built Heritage Officer as 

part of the joint heritage development 

3-year pilot initiative between Council 

and DfC Historic Environment Division 

• Planning permission secured in respect 

of the proposed Ballynagard Social 

Housing & Community Regeneration 

Project 

• On-site commencement of final 3 

heritage-led regeneration capital 

projects as part of the Walled City 

Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI) 

• Preparation & submission of €85m 

Riverine funding application to the 

SEUPB’s PEACE IV ‘Shared Spaces’ 

measure for a proposed community 

district park in Strabane & Lifford 

• Completion of the shopfront 

enhancement scheme ‘ReStore’ on 

Clooney Terrace & Strand Road, 

and the submission of a £250k 

Revitalisation shopfront enhancement 

scheme for Strabane town centre 

• Awarded Active Travel Workplace 

of the Year at the UK Healthy 

Streets Awards 

• Adopted Zero Waste Strategy 

in conjunction with Zero Waste 

North West 

• Upgraded Christmas lights 

in Donemana, Sion Mills and 

Newtownstewart 

• The team worked with two rural 

communities in Victoria Bridge and 

Magheramason to enter the Pride of 

Place Awards. Victoria Bridge were 

awarded a Pride of Place Award. 

• In the 12 months to the end of March 

2018, the Building Control section 

received applications with 

a construction value in the region 

of £173 million 

• An increase of 119% in planning 

decisions issued, a 166% increase 

in approved applications with an 

overall approval rate of 97% 

• Local Development Plan (LDP) – the 

LDP Preferred Papers Option (POP) 

was published in May 2017 followed 

by a consultation period from June 

to August 2017 

• Approved and issued the highest 

number of major residential 

developments in Northern Ireland, 

6 so far in the first two quarters of 

this year 2017/18 and 9 which was the 

highest in NI for last year, culminating 

to a total of 1078 dwelling units, 835 

Social and 243 Private. Many of these 

are also accompanied by legal planning 

agreements securing comprehensive 

development and facilitating associated 

infrastructure and open space in order 

to deliver sustainable communities 

• The EU Improve pilot project 

continues successfully to offer 

enhanced engagement opportunities 

for stakeholders, statutory consultees 

and wider public to input into the 

LDP and expanded /integrated the 

program this year into Development 

Management function. 

• The ‘Best Place in Northern Ireland 

Award’ was received from Royal 

Town Planning Institute for Derry/ 

Londonderry for historic core Peace 

Bridge and Ebrington


Objective: 

Grow our business and facilitate 

cultural development 

Economic Development & Job Creation 

• 139 jobs promoted as part of Northern 

Ireland Business Start Up Programme 

• 272 jobs promoted as part of the 

Business Boost programme 

• Social Enterprise NI - Highly 

Commended in Council of the 

Year Category 

• Delivery of Enterprise Week 2017 

(6th – 10th March); 18 Events, Over 700 

Attendees, 96% of respondents rated 

Enterprise Week as excellent or good 

• Delivery of Fashion Fest 2017 

(14th October) - Over 350 

attendees - 40% uplift on 2016; 

23 designers participating 

• Delivery of Christmas Market 

(14th -17th Dec); 29 traders; 83,913 

visitors to the Guildhall Square over 

duration of the Christmas Market, 

this represents an increase of 38% from 

the previous weeks (51,695) footfall 

statistics. The busiest day of the 

Market was Saturday 16th December 

with 28,791 people through Guildhall 

Square, this was also the first day of 

performances from Bjorn the Bear 

• Christmas Business Programme; 

55 business participants re Rural 

Towns/ 12 Days of Christmas business 

promotion initiatives 

• Strabane BID – Over 80 businesses 

signed up to participate in the 

Strabane Gift Card initiative 

• Designer Start Up Programme; 

10 designers showcasing at London 

Fashion Week 

• Launched City Start Programme 

City & Regional Investment 

& Opportunity 

• Council leading Ireland Northwest 

Trade and Investment Mission 

to Boston, Massachusetts and 

Philadelphia in partnership with 

Donegal County Council 

• Developing export potential of 8 local 

companies in DCSDC area having 

secured their participation in the trade 

mission to City of Boston 

• Regional investment proposition 

for Ireland Northwest enhanced 

and supporting collateral refreshed 

in collaboration with Donegal 

County Council 

• Secured Memorandum of 

Understanding with City of Boston 

• Hosting first official Chinese 

government visit to City by Dalian 

and subsequent proposal by Dalian 

to establish friendly city relationship 

• DCSD ranked in Top 10 Best European 

Small City for FDI Strategy Award 

(fDi Magazine’s European Cities and 

Regions of the Future Awards 2018/19) 

• Supported city secure MEGUK 

2018 conference 

• Hosting senior level corporate 

and government delegations 

to the City and District including 

Lord Mayor City of London, US Irish 

International Business Network, State 

of Pennsylvania


Rural Development 

• Rural Business Investment Scheme - 

opening of Call 2 & 3 and approval 

of 15 grants totalling £888,127, creating 

535 FTE new jobs 

• Rural Basic Services Scheme - opening 

of targeted Call 1 & 2 and approval 

of 12 grants totalling £94,777 

(Call 1 to date) 

• Village Renewal Scheme – completion 

of scoping study, selection of 13 

settlements for capital support and 

commencement of 15 cluster village 

plans to cover all 49 rural settlements 

in the Council area 

• Rural Broadband Scheme – mapping 

of current Broadband coverage and 

speed as well as best practice visit 

to Finland 

• Rural Cooperation Scheme - 

completion of scoping study for Ulster- 

Ireland section of the International 

Appalachian Trail 

• (Derry-Strabane as lead partner) 

and feasibility study for Rivers Access 

& Recreation Project (Causeway Coast 

& Glens as lead partner) 

• Total of 36 pre-application/ 

procurement workshops for potential 

applicants (580 attendees) 

• Total of 35 other animation events (360 

attendees) under Village Renewal and 

Cooperation schemes 

• Marketing and promotional activity 

comprising 7 advert campaigns and 

7 press and social media campaigns 

• Recruitment of additional members 

to the Wider LAG, first annual general 

meeting of Derry & Strabane Rural 

Partnership and preparation of first 

annual report 

Employment, Skills & Training 

• Delivery of the ESF Kickstart 

to Work project year 3 x engaged 

356 participants 

• Designed, delivered and joint funded 

with NWRC Software Fundamentals 

course with 8 ICT companies x 20 

participants 

• Designed, delivered and joint funded 

with NWRC Welding Academy with 8 

companies x 15 participants 

• Funded with NWRC a Neighbourhood 

Renewal programme of vocational 

training – engaged 240 participants 

• The roll out of the World Host Food 

Ambassador programme 

in conjunction with Tourism NI 

for the food sector x 96 participants 

• The rollout of the Worldhost 

principals of Customer Service in 

conjunction with Tourism NI for 60 

x Translink Metro Staff and 14 x post 

primary schools 

• One PfG public consultation 

events hosted on behalf of DfC 

• Annual hosting of jobs fair with DEL’s 

Jobs & Benefits Office x 637 attendees 

& 32 employers 

• Acted as Secretariat to Education 

& Skills Delivery Partnership 

established to deliver on Strategic 

Growth Plan 

• Delivery of UNESCO Learning 

Cities Workshop


PEACE Programme 

• June 2017 Securing of Letter of offer 

for £6,205,204 from the Special EU 

Programmes Body 

• Launch 21st June 2017 (First 

participating council to launch 

programme) attended by 200+ 

participants from across council 

services and community and voluntary 

sector and representing a wide range 

of geographies and identities 

• Design, development and delivery 

of a web based expression of interest 

and application process for PEACE IV 

Small Grants 

• Design, development and delivery 

of an electronic, iPad/App based 

equality monitoring and baseline 

attitudinal evaluation system for 

the PEACE IV local programme. 

Sharing of this system with other 

councils through the PEACE IV 

Managers Forum 

• Issue of 12 Letters of offer 

for grants to value of £394,255 

• Issue of 12 Service Level Agreements 

(3 under Building Positive Relations 

totalling £582,799; 5 under Children 

and Young people totaling £1,107,250; 

4 under Shared Spaces and Services 

totalling £1,130,054) with council 

led service areas across different 

directorates and service areas. A 

total of £2,820,103 for PEACE IV 

Programmes delivered by Council 

• Issue of 13 Tendered contracts 

(4 under Shared Spaces and services 

to value of £739,272; and 9 under 

Building Positive Relations to the 

value of £1,201,643) worth a total of 

£1,949,914 to the local community 

and voluntary sector 

• Submission of financial claims 1-7 

to SEUPB and completion of financial 

forecasting/profiling for duration and 

value of entire PEACE IV programme 

• Submission of 1st Annual Equality 

Return in January 2018 

• October 2017 and January 2018 

submission of further bids to SEUPB 

for a total value of £796,316 

• 20th – 22nd November 2017 Invitation 

by SEUPB to exhibit at the European 

Parliament in Brussels Event attended 

by Commissioner Cretu, MEPs, Irish 

and UK Ambassadorial Representation 

• 29th November Invitation by SEUPB 

to speak at the Peace Monitoring 

Committee (Overarching national 

and EU body overseeing the 

implementation of the PEACE 

IV Programme) 

• 1st March 2018 Delivery of the 

first PEACE IV local programme 

networking event with all funded 

projects 

• Establishment of Communications 

systems including monthly e-bulletins 

(280 subscribers) and bi-annual 

magazine (1500 distributed) 

• Creation of 14 new jobs (6 within 

council and 8 within local community 

and voluntary sector) through PEACE 

IV programme


Digital Services 

• Expanded current IP telephony 

system to smaller out centres 

reducing call costs between sites, 

making Council more connected 

• Rationalised all phone lines producing 

efficiencies in telecoms costs 

• New server, San and DR project 

hardware installed and servers 

all moved over 

• Initiated Airport Hardware 

refresh project 

• Server uptime 98% 

• Network uptime 98% 

• Review of Council website 

and systems initiated 

Marketing 

• Delivered a full range of marketing 

services (design, marketing 

campaigns, social media) to over 

22 council services and cross cutting 

projects across 3 directorates 

• Designed, developed and delivered 

marketing campaigns for over 17 

festivals and events 

• Successful completion of the 

Digital Marketing campaign for 

the NIBSUP. Recruited dedicated 

marketing officer starting April 2018 

together with initiation and roll out 

of the full regional marketing and 

communications campaign on behalf 

of 11 Councils 

• Completed Interreg NPA Programme 

Project – IMPROVE, generating 

€70,000 funding for the department 

and worked on European Capital 

of Culture Bid 

Tourism 

• Developed Tourism Strategy for 

the region and established Tourism 

Strategic Group to support with 

implementation 

• Developed Food & Drink Strategy 

& Action Plan for the region and 

established a Strategic Food Group 

to support with implementation 

• Secured two new funded projects, 

Peace Tourism £318,805 and SAFER 

€192,28000 (Interreg AA) which in 

total the tourism team delivered 5 

European funded projects totalling 

€1,217,626.20 to support marine, food, 

slow adventure, seafood sector and 

conflict/peace tourism development 

• Secured £50k external funding to 

support delivery of 3 food events 

attracting 40,000 visitors and average 

hotel occupancy of 89% 

• Appointment of dedicated Peace 

Tourism Officer under the Peace 

Tourism Project 

• Secured £39k to deliver collaborative 

heritage project which will compliment 

EYCH18 & Walls Alive 400 Programme 

• 13 new rural tourism products 

developed and launched, delivered 

marketing campaign achieving 

£321k Advertising Value Equivalent 

• Supported Sperrins Future Search work 

to develop action plan for the AONB

Annual Performance Report 2017/18


Museum and Visitor Services 

• Achieved 2% increase in Visitor 

numbers to Guildhall and Tower 

Museum 

• Agreed the 5-year strategy 

for the Service 

• Delivery of Laurentic and Mabel 

Colhoun exhibitions 

• Delivery of 5 key events, including 

the first Organ Festival 

• Successful HLF Round 2 funding of 

£28m for the Maritime Museum Project 

• Formal launch of the Speeches, Strikes 

and Struggles and creation of website 

• Tower Museum accreditation complete 

• Delivery of reminiscence programme 

and dementia awareness training 

• Secured liquor license for the Guildhall 

until 2020 

Arts and Culture 

• Securing of Quest accreditation, 

Disability Equality Charter of 

Excellence, Autism Friendly Venue 

status for the Alley Arts 

& Conference Centre 

• Completion of the Alley 

5-year Strategy 

• Securing additional £158,245 from 

external funders to supplement 

delivery of the Access Improvement 

Programme for Cultural Venues 

• Completion of 24 disability access 

audits for DCSDC cultural venues 

• 15,000 participants in pan-disability 

programme activities across DCSDC 

• Ongoing delivery of the ACNI 

Challenge Fund (Youth Arts 

Development, Festivals Engagement, 

Audience Development, Visual Arts 

Engagement) and Arts & Older 

People Programmes 

• Delivery of Culture Night and European 

Day of Persons with Disabilities 

• Launch of DCSDC bid to be an 

Autism Friendly City and District 

Festival and Events 

• Delivery of 18 tier one events 

including the largest ever Halloween, 

City of Derry Jazz Festival, Strabane 

Lifford Half Marathon, Waterside Half 

Marathon and Summer Jamm Events 

• Achieved the Best Tourism/ Event 

Initiative Award from the UTV Business 

Eye Awards for Halloween 

in Derry 

• Made efficiency savings of around 5% 

on production costs which 

was directly placed into 

programme budgets 

• Ongoing delivery of the Community 

Festival Fund and the Headline Events 

Fund Awarded 32 events funding 

• Increased the amount of business 

engagement and private sector 

involved in Council core events 

• Coordinated 10 individual mentoring 

sessions for event organisers with 

Association of Festival and Events Ireland 

Organised as part of Enterprise week 

Festival and Event Financial Management 

which had 20 attendees across Derry 

and Strabane


Objective: 

Promote healthy communities 

Community Development 

• 3 new/refurbished community centres 

completed (Irish Street/Glebe/Victoria 

Bridge) 

• 1 new community centre build 

progressed to contractor select list 

appointment (Lincoln Courts) 

• 3 New Capital Build Community 

Centres progressed through the Design 

Stages (Galliagh/Shantallow/TOTH) 

• 8 Draft Local Community Growth 

Plans and Governance Structures 

to complete by Spring 2018 

• Advice Services: £718,299 Awarded 

to Generalist Advice providers 

• Community Development Grant 

Aid Programme: £214,499 awarded 

• Good Relations Grant Aid 

Programme: £200,000 Awarded 

• UNICEF Child Rights Partner 

Programme: successful application 

made to UNICEF with multiagency 

engagement sessions and training 

planned to embed the Child Rights 

Framework across Council, WHSCT 

and Western Area Outcomes Group 

(WAOG) 

• PEACE IV Youth Participation 

and Democracy: £212,040 secured to 

facilitate development of Youth Council 

• Waterside Shared Space Programme 

approved - SEUPB (c72m) 

Policing & Community Safety 

Partnership 

• Financial Leverage Ratio of over 2:1: 

£718,321 of External Funding Secured 

• Project Support Funding of £197,671 

awarded for local community safety 

projects 

• 41 Neighbourhood Watch Schemes 

supported 

• Over 400 homes fitted with additional 

home security equipment 

• Over 10,000 patrols carried out 

by Community Safety Wardens 

• Received and actioned over 1000 

Anti-Social Behaviour Referrals 

to Community Safety Wardens


Leisure & Sport Service 

• £7 million Brandywell Stadium Capital 

Development opened February 2018 

• New Melvin 3G pitch opening Spring 2018 

• Design Team procured for new leisure 

facilities in Templemore and Strabane 

• Contractor appointed for Leafair and 

Corrody Road projects 

• 940k leisure user visitor numbers 

(paid visits) during year 

• Council wide Physical Activity Referral 

Scheme with 385 special population 

participants per year 

• Implementation of new ‘Spirit of 2012 

Get out Get Active’ Disability Programme 

• Over 11,000 participants in Everybody 

Active 2020 Programme 

• Sports Grant Aid of £160,040 

awarded to local clubs 

Health & Community Wellbeing General 

• 3686 Environmental Health service 

requests investigated and actioned in 

accordance with Council enforcement 

policies 

Food Safety 

• Supported 246 New food 

business operators 

• Conducted 761 Food Hygiene 

Inspections and 426 Food Standards 

Inspections 

• Delivered 3 Menucal seminars in 

partnership with FSA on Caloriewise 

Initiative 

• Conducted 270 inspections for 

Allergen Compliance Initiative 

• Successful implementation of the 

mandatory Food Hygiene Rating 

Scheme with 93% of all premises 

having a 4 or 5 rating 

• Funding obtained from Food 

Standards Agency for 3 projects 

• 12 Approved Premises Files reviewed 

in line with FSA Guidance 

• Procured food samples including 

participation in 5 National surveys 

Health & Safety/Consumer Protection 

• 616 planned priority health and safety 

inspections; 207 advisory/compliance 

visits; 425 new premises registrations; 

210 service requests; 

and 48 reportable accidents 

• Production of guidance leaflets on 

consumer protection to local retailers 

and advice to consumers via various 

press releases 

• Working in partnership with Trading 

Standards Officers in GB on a serious 

consumer complaint regarding 

children’s bath foam 

• Sunbed Test purchase exercise 

undertaken for under age sales with 

100% of premises visited compliant 

• Production of a Health and Safety 

Newsletter for small businesses 

• Working in partnership with various 

organisations providing training 

and the production of advisory 

material in minority languages


• Working with Sport NI and local 

sporting organisations/clubs to ensure 

the highest level of spectator safety at 

our main sports grounds including the 

new Brandywell Stadium 

• Achievement of HSENI/DC Joint 

Strategy targets for Better Regulation 

with regard to fireworks safety, sports 

grounds safety, sunbeds safety, and 

slips & trips initiative 

Health & Housing 

• Procurement of Community Crisis 

Intervention Service initiated 

• Council has demonstrated its 

commitment to address ill health 

and poor wellbeing by working 

towards the goals of: 

• The WHO European Healthy Cities 

Network and the Copenhagen 

Consensus 

• Civic Forum: Alcohol, Drugs, Mental 

Health and Emotional Wellbeing 

• A Community Toilet Scheme for the 

Council area has been Implemented 

• Health promotion and home 

safety is included as part of the 

Registration Service 

Objective: 

Provide effective and facilitative cross 

functional support services 

Our strategic support services have also 

made significant progress during the year 

and we have delivered the following: 

Strategic Partnerships 

• Publication and launch of the Inclusive 

Strategic Growth Plan 2017-2032 in 

November 2017 

• 8 outcome delivery partnerships 

established 

• 8 outcome delivery plans developed 

Communications 

• Established effective press and media 

engagement through the placement 

of proactive media stories and 

initiatives to highlight the role 

of Council 

• Improved management of media 

queries to ensure all queries 

are responded to 

• Led on successful PR campaigns for 

Council organised events including 

the St Patrick’s Day Spring Carnival, 

the City of Derry Jazz Festival, 

Fashion Fest, Enterprise Week, the 

NW Angling Fair, The Strabane Lifford 

Half Marathon and Halloween Festival 

• Led on communicating with 

the public and stakeholders 

to encourage involvement in the 

Community Planning process and 

proactively promoting the objectives 

set out in the Strategic Growth Plan 

• Delivered two Staff Newsletters 

to engage with staff and keep them 

informed of strategic aims 

• Increased engagement on Council 

corporate social media platforms 

to keep public informed on Council 

initiatives and objectives


• Increased the number of proactive 

press releases and features to secure 

increase number of media placements 

Democratic Services and Improvement 

• Received an unqualified audit in 

respect of the Council’s compliance 

with its statutory performance 

improvement duties 

• Implemented the CCTV Policy 

including Privacy Impact Assessments 

and delivery of training on the policy 

and procedures 

• Policy unit delivered 15 training 

sessions on the Safeguarding 

(Children and Vulnerable Adults) 

Policy to staff across the leisure and 

visitor attraction facilities 

• 7 Policies were screened in the 2017-18 

year 

• 2 meetings of the Quality Assurance 

and Oversight Group were held 

• A robust equality impact assessment 

report was prepared for consultation 

on the Council’s Community Plan 

• Completed in depth analysis of 

equality and rural impacts on the 

Council area due to cuts to the Rates 

Support Grant 

• 5 awareness sessions on the Code of 

Practice on Producing Information 

were held 

• Supported the development of 

indicators for regional benchmarking 

across Council services 

• Achieved 100% Customer Satisfaction 

Rate with Irish Language services 

• 912 subscribers to Council’s Irish 

Language Services and Information 

Page on Facebook 

• Achieved highest numbers for 

audience participation in the Island 

Voices lecture series (145) 

• Partnered with Libraries NI to secure 

funding to deliver Irish language 

poetry event 

• Secured funding from Conradh na 

Gaeilge to deliver event to celebrate 

Bliain na Gaeilge (Year of Irish 2018) 

• Partnered with a range of 

organisations to deliver Irish Language 

Week 2018 

• Call handling etiquette developed 

• Improved telephony recording and 

monitoring including submission 

of monthly reports to the Senior 

Leadership Team 

• Delivered a member development 

programme including 13 training 

courses as part of work towards 

achieving Charter Plus 

• Facilitated Elected Member workshops 

/ working groups on key policy areas 

and hard issues such as ‘Flags and 

Emblems’ and ‘Language’ 

• Raised £8,000 for the Mayor’s Charity 

• Serviced a programme of Mayoral 

events that saw more than 50,800 

people engaged with the Mayor’s 

Office in the course of 976 

engagements 

• Prepared analysis to support regional 

lobbying position 

• Member satisfaction survey results 100% 

• 90 Council / committee 

meetings serviced 

• Introduced data protection training 

for all staff

Annual Performance Report 2017/18


• Worked in partnership with 

organisations such as Libraries NI, 

Foras na Gaeilge and Conradh 

na Gaeilge 

Human Resources 

• Organisational structure well 

established across most areas 

• Review of operational staff almost 

complete within Leisure Services 

• Audit of key differences in terms and 

conditions of employment progressed 

and harmonisation achieved in some 

areas including pay scales 

• Process agreed and implemented 

to pay holiday/overtime 

• A formula agreed to buy out 

regular overtime and applied where 

opportunities to reduce overtime have 

been identified 

• A review of recruitment processes 

completed and recommendations 

implemented 

• A range of Health & Wellbeing 

initiatives progressed through BeWell 

• A new attendance policy implemented 

• 92% of line managers attended 

mandatory training on Managing 

Attendance 

• 80% of employees attended awareness 

training on Attendance Policy 

• Absence lost time rate reduced 

from 6.9% to 6.1% 

• 70% of employees had full attendance 

• Annual Employee engagement event 

held in June 

• Staff recognition event held 

in December 

• BeSocial launched 

• Council Choir established 

• Corporate team building event held 

in June 

• Employee Engagement 

Strategy developed 

• Alcohol and Drugs Policy agreed 

• 90% of new employees inducted 

within 3 days of starting employment 

• 26 employees for post entry training 

• E learning system rolled out with 3 

mandatory courses delivered 

• 8 Managers participated in accredited 

leadership programmes


Assurance 

• Completion of planned audit work 

based on the approved audit plan 

and completion of unplanned work 

as required in order to provide 

appropriate levels of assurance to the 

Chief Executive, the Assurance, Audit 

& Risk Committee and the Northern 

Ireland Audit Office 

• Delivery of Fraud Awareness Training 

to over 200 staff in the organisation 

• Delivery of Fraud Awareness Training 

to CODA Operations Ltd 

• Detailed Audit Needs Assessment 

produced to inform audit work for 

the next 3 to 5 years 

• Completion of Audit Plan 

for CODA Operations Ltd 

• Risk reporting systems reviewed 

to ensure Council assurance 

requirements continue to be met 

• Risk structures reviewed and risk 

registers now in place for all 

service areas 

• Reporting system established to 

ensure that liability claims analysis is 

included as part of Corporate Health 

& Safety review processes 

• Delivered Claims Defence Training 

to Council staff in partnership with 

Council’s Insurers and Council Legal 

Services team 

• Worked with Council Motor Insurers 

to deliver Fleet Management training 

to Managers and Supervisors with 

responsibility for Council Drivers 

• Continued savings realised in the very 

successful self-insurance programme 

• Retention of the Health & Safety 

OHSAS 18001 accreditation 

• OHSAS 18001 procedures reviewed 

and updated 

• Reduction in the number 

of RIDDOR incidents 

• Delivery of mandatory Health & Safety 

training to Elected Members 

• Payroll statutory reporting deadlines 

met and all staff paid correctly in 

accordance with agreed pay scales 

• Percentage of employees receiving 

pay slips via email increased to 60.72% 

• Led on Council’s response to the 

recovery operations in relation to the 

significant flooding which occurred 

in August 2017 

• Effectively managed the Scheme 

of Emergency Financial Assistance 

to approximately 400 households 

throughout the year 

• Completion of a number of very 

successful emergency exercises 

• All emergency situations responded 

to in an appropriate manner 

• Ongoing work in relation to the 

development, validation and testing 

of Business Continuity Plans 

throughout the Council 

• Development, communication and 

training of staff in a number of key 

policies for the organisation – Counter 

Fraud, Whistleblowing, Anti-Bribery 

and Conflicts of Interest 

• Streamlining of procurement 

procedures and processes 

• Training delivered to Elected Members 

in relation to procurement procedures 

and processes 

• Use of Etenders NI for procurement 

activity under £30k is now underway 

• Upgrade of Agresso financial system 

was approved by Committee in 

June 2017 and contract was agreed 

and signed. Project plan has been


developed with clear timeframes 

regarding implementation 

• Ongoing liaison with the Department 

of Transport to ensure the successful 

delivery of and drawdown of funds 

for the Public Service Obligation 

route from City of Derry Airport 

to London Stansted 

• Ongoing liaison with the Department 

of Economy and completion of tender 

documents in relation to Public 

Service Obligation route from City 

of Derry Airport to Manchester 

• Percentage of invoices paid within 

30 days increased to 83.6% 

• Percentage of invoices paid within 

10 days increased to 44.7% 

Strategic Finance and Funding 

• Year-end accounts for 2016/17 

completed and audited in line with 

required timeframe 

• Rates estimates for 2018/19 completed 

by statutory deadline of 15th February 

2018 including benchmarking of 

service costs, penny product and 

growth comparisons and medium 

term financial plan 

• Rates increase of 2.99% agreed 

including 1% investment in growth 

despite significant external pressures 

• Efficiencies of £2.145m achieved 

and reinvested into growth priorities, 

facilitating completion of £34m of 

capital projects and providing full 

financing for a further £63m of 

capital development 

• Analysis completed identifying 

development potential of Council’s 

key strategic sites as part of 

developing investment proposition 

for city and region 

• Strong financial management and 

monitoring to identify £1.05m surplus 

at January 2017 of which £710k has 

been reinvested in corporate priorities 

• Agreement of investment priorities 

and preparation of Draft Growth Deal 

Statement of Intent for the Derry/ 

Londonderry City Region 

and presented to relevant officials 

and Ministers 

• Securing £14m of funding for the NW 

Greenways Network from Interreg 

and submission of further significant 

funding applications for Riverine 

(SEUPB) and a number of Community 

Centres (DFC) 

• Completion and public launch of 

BREXIT report, including presentation 

to House of Commons, House of Lords 

and Oireachtas Committees 

• Completion of 8 business cases 

on behalf of The Executive Office 

to support the ongoing regeneration 

of the Ebrington site 

• Provision of baseline data, mapping 

and statistical analysis to support 

key strategic objectives, eg Year of 

Youth, European Capital of Culture, 

PEACE, SIF, City Growth Deal, Local 

Development Plan and University 

expansion 

In overall terms, the Council made positive progress in 2017/18 in working towards 

its Mission of “Delivering improved social, economic and environmental outcomes 

for everyone”.


The Rural Needs Act 

(Northern Ireland) 2016 

The Rural Needs Act (Northern Ireland) 

2016 (the Act) came into operation for 

government departments and district 

councils on 1 June 2017. The Act requires 

policy makers and public authorities 

to have due regard to rural needs when 

developing and implementing policies 

and when designing and delivering 

public services. 

In fulfilling these obligations, the Council 

has taken rural needs into consideration 

in respect of the: 

• Development of the Inclusive 

Strategic Growth Plan 2017-2032 

(Community Plan); 

• Establishment of Local Growth 

Partnership Boards and the 

development of Local Growth Plans; 

• Ongoing development of the Derry 


Tourism Strategy 2018-25; 

• Preparation of the rural proofing 

baseline and interim report for the 

Local Development Plan (LDP) 

Preferred Options Paper; 

• Implementation of the Council’s 

Revised Street Naming and Property 

Numbering Policy; and 

• Ongoing development of the Derry 

City and Strabane District Council Arts 

and Culture Strategy 2019-24. 

A core dimension of these initiatives 

has been ensuring that engagement 

processes have specifically included 

rural stakeholders in 

co-design processes. 

At a strategic level, it is noted that 

the Inclusive Growth Plan has identified 

a number of specific needs pertaining 

to rural areas such as: 

• The need for improved broadband 

connectivity in rural areas; 

• The need for more direct transport 

links/connectivity with and to other 

regions and connectivity within and 

between local communities; 

• The need to strongly improve and 

enhance rural social, economic and 

environmental regeneration; 

• The need to conserve, enrich and 

protect environmental and built 

heritage assets in rural areas.


In order to address these needs, the 

Strategic Growth Plan has incorporated 

the following actions: 

• Maximise job creation and investment 

opportunities in our City and Town 

Centres, regionally significant 

regeneration sites and rural areas. 

• Develop a pilot Rural Community 

Broadband Scheme and roll out 

in multiple locations 

• Deliver business start-up programmes 

and development support focused on 

areas of high economic inactivity and 

rural community hubs 

• Develop a heritage/conservationled 

masterplan and renewal action 

plan for the village of Sion Mills 

and other settlements, including 

Newtownstewart town centre 

conservation area 

• Protect and promote our natural 

and built heritage assets through 

the establishment of multi-sectoral 

heritage partnerships, heritage 

education programmes, skills 

specialisms development and 

integration with our tourism 

product offering 

• Provide quality social and private 

housing in sustainable urban and 

rural neighbourhoods to meet the 

needs of our growing population 

providing attractive places to live 

within easy access to local services 

and amenities 

• Promote neighbourhood and 

village enhancement through the 

development of local environmental 

improvement schemes and community 

play parks and facilities 

• Promote greater integration 

and inclusion within and between 

communities through animating 

shared spaces, services and facilities 

and the development of rural 

community clusters


At a community/service level, 

addressing rural needs and 

implementing the objectives of the 

Inclusive Strategic Growth Plan is being 

facilitated by the development of eight 

local community plans. As part of this 

development process, consultation 

workshops were held in the three rural 

District Electoral Areas (DEA) of Sperrin, 

Derg and Faughan. As a result, needs 

were identified which are specific to 

the three rural areas and have been 

highlighted within the three local 

growth plans for these DEAs. In addition, 

the establishment of Local Community 

Growth Partnership Boards in each of 

the three rural District Electoral Areas 

ensures a focus on identifying and 

addressing rural needs, maximising 

the potential, and improving the 

quality of life in rural communities. 

Commitment to having due regard 

to rural need has also be reflected in 

the process for the development of a 

Preferred Options Paper (POP) as part 

of the emerging Local Development Plan. 

Planning officials undertook a series of 

2017 meetings with stakeholders, Rural 

Focus Groups and Elected Members to 

ensure the development of the POP had 

due regards to rural needs and pertinent 

issues where fed in to inform option 

development. The publication of the 

POP in May 2017 was also accompanied 

by a three- month consultation period 

and an extensive social media campaign 

to extract feedback from across the 

entire District. Hard copies of the POP 

documents were also distributed to all 

Council Sports facilities, community 

facilities, libraries, and health practices 

to ensure they were widely distributed 

to maximise potential feedback. Public 

consultation events (am & pm) were also 

held in Claudy, Donemana and Castlederg 

to gather feedback. 

It is noted that the Rural Proofing – 

Baseline and Interim Report for the 

Local Development Plan Preferred 

Options Paper stage addressed issues 

such as rural proofing, rural needs, 

definition of rural, rural statistics, 

rural planning- context and policy, 

and impact assessment.


The Council is committed to ensuring 

that due regard is given to rural needs 

when developing and implementing 

policies and when designing and 

delivering public services and in this 

context, work is continuing to be 

advanced in terms of: 

• embedding rural needs impact 

assessment with the Council’s 

decision making processes 

• developing training programmes 

and policy guidance/templates 

• identifying and sharing best 

practice and 

• improving the monitoring 

of services and outcomes. 

In order to fulfil its obligations under 

Section 3 of the Act, the Council will 

submit information to the Department and 

include information on the Rural Needs Act 

in its Annual Performance Report. 

Further information on how the Council 

has had due regard to rural needs when 

developing, adopting, implementing or 

revising the policy, strategy or plan or 

when designing or delivering the public 

service is provided in Appendix 1.


Performance Improvement 

Areas/Criteria 

The Local Government Act (Northern 

Ireland) 2014 requires that councils make 

arrangements to secure continuous 

improvement in the carrying out of its 

activities and highlights the following 

improvement areas/criteria: 

• Strategic effectiveness 

• Service quality 

• Service availability 

• Fairness 

• Sustainability 

• Efficiency 

• Innovation 

Work is currently being progressed, 

in liaison with other Councils and 

the Association for Public Sector, 

Excellence to identify relevant indicators 

for performance measurement and 

benchmarking purposes, in relation to 

service delivery and improvement criteria, 

as appropriate, including identifying and 

quantifying customer views. Work is 

also being progressed in terms of linking 

corporate and service indicators to the 

outcomes set out in the community plan. 

Performance indicators are also identified 

within our annual Directorate Plans and 

whilst our performance measurement 

approaches, data collection and analysis 

systems are evolving and baselines are 

being established, there is initial evidence 

of quantifiable improvements being made 

across a number of areas.


Examples of the indicators that we collect and 

performance trend details are provided in the table below. 

Improvement 

Area 


Indicator 

2015/16 


2016/17 



Performance 2017/18 

Target 

Trend* 

Strategic 

effectiveness 

Number of 

leisure users 

874,034 918,256 940,009 930,735 

Service 

quality 

% Elected 

member 

satisfaction 

with support 

services 

93% 

- 

97% 

100% 

85% 

% Streets 

achieving grade 

B or above/ 

88% 

90% 

Service 

availability 

Number 

of house 

inspections 

carried 

out under 

the Private 

Tenancies 

Order 

34 

42 

31 

50 

Total number 

of applications 

processed by 

Building Control 

- 

3822 

4514 

- 

Sustainability 

Efficiency 

Innovation 

% Dog attacks 

investigated 

within 1 day 

% invoices paid 

within 30 days 

% invoices paid 

within 10 days 

% of staff 

receiving 

payslips via 

email 

Number of dog 

licences issued 

Number of 

international 

markets 

activated 

- 100% 100% 100% 

- 75% 82% 80% 

- 34% 44% 35% 

27% 42% 

61% 100% 

5864 7029 8162 8435 

2 4 4 4 

*Key to Trend 

Performance improving / demand 

Performance declining / demand 

Performance / demand trend unclear or no change 

Further information on performance indicators can be found 

in the Directorate Delivery Plans.


Statutory Indicators 

Introduction 

In September 2015, under the Local 

Government (Performance Indicators 

and Standards) Order (Northern 

Ireland) 2015, statutory performance 

indicators and standards have been 

set as part of the performance 

improvement arrangements for district 

councils. Performance measures have 

been specified for the functions of 

economic development, planning and 

waste management. The aim of the 

performance measures is to promote 

the improvement of service delivery. 

Statutory Performance Indicators 

and Standards 

The statutory performance indicators and 

standards have been set by the relevant 

Central Government Department. In order 

to ensure consistency and reliability of 

performance data, reporting on these 

performance indicators and standards 

will be carried out centrally so as to 

allow for accurate comparison between 

councils across performance indicators 

and standards. Central reporting will also 

ensure that the relevant Department 

continues to meet its statutory 

obligations under the Code of Practice 

for Official Statistics when reporting 

performance at the Regional level. 


Council is committed to meeting 

the following seven statutory 

performance indicators/standards.


Ref 

Statutory Indicator 

ED1 The number of jobs promoted through business start-up 

activity (Business start-up activity means the delivery of 

completed client led business plans under the Department 

of Enterprise, Trade and Investment’s Regional Start 

Initiative or its successor programmes.) 

P1 The average processing time of major planning 

applications. 

[An application in the category of major development 

within the meaning of the Planning (Development 

Management) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015(a)] 

P2 The average processing time of local planning applications. 

[Local applications means an application in the category 

of local development within the meaning of the Planning 

(Development Management) Regulations (Northern 

Ireland) 2015, and any other applications for approval or 

consent under the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 (or 

any orders or regulations made under that Act)] 

P3 The percentage of enforcement cases processed within 39 

weeks. 

[Enforcement cases are investigations into alleged 

breaches of planning control under Part 5 of the Planning 

Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 (or under any orders or 

regulations made under that Act). (b).] 

W1 The percentage of household waste collected by district 

councils that is sent for recycling (including waste prepared 

for reuse). 

[Household waste is as defined in Article 2 of the Waste 

and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997(a) 

and the Controlled Waste and Duty of Care Regulations 

(Northern Ireland) 2013(b)] 

W2 The amount (tonnage) of biodegradable Local Authority 

Collected Municipal Waste that is landfilled. 

[Local authority collected municipal waste is as defined 

in section 21 of the Waste and Emissions Trading Act 

2003(c)] 

W3 The amount (tonnage) of Local Authority Collected 

Municipal Waste arisings. 

[Local authority collected municipal waste arisings is the 

total amount of local authority collected municipal waste 

which has been collected by a district council] 

Standard to be met 

(annually), 

where applicable 

140 

Major applications 

processed from date 

valid to decision or 

withdrawal within an 

average of 30 weeks. 

Local applications 

processed from date 

valid to decision or 

withdrawal within an 

average of 15 weeks. 

70% of all 

enforcement cases 

progressed to target 

conclusion within 39 

weeks of receipt 

of complaint 

20,257 tonnes


2017/18 Performance – Statutory Indicators 

Performance Indicator & Target 

W1 The percentage of household waste collected by District Councils that is sent for recycling 

(preparing for reuse, dry recycling and composting) (KPI (2a). Target: 50% by end 2020. 

What this 

indicator shows 

Why this is 

important 

Our Performance 

and how we 

Compare 

What we have 

done 

to improve 

Future actions 

we will be taking 

to improve 


W2 The amount (tonnage) of biodegradable Local Authority Collected Municipal Waste 

that is landfilled (KPI(g). Target: less than 20,257 tonnes . 

What this The volume of Biodegradable Municipal Waste (BMW) landfilled. 


Why this is 

important 



Compare 

What we have 

done to improve 



to improve 

The % of household waste that has been sent for recycling, composting 

or reuse. 

Councils have been set a recycling target of 50% household waste by 

2020. 

Comparator 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 Are we Improving? 

Derry City 

& Strabane 

District Council 

Councils are under direction to reduce the volumes of BMW going to 

landfill in consideration of Northern Ireland Landfill Allowance Scheme 

and EU Landfill Directive targets. 

Comparator 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 

Are we Improving? 

Statutory Target met? 



District 

Council 

33.30% 40.5% 43.3%* Yes, we are improving 

– the percentage of 

household waste that 

is being recycled is 

continuing to increase 

NI Average 42.2% 44.4% 48.1%* 

Council has continued to roll out separate food waste collections across 

the district and is currently trialling the collection of co-mingled food 

and green waste from households. In addition Council has put in place 

measures to reduce the volume of contamination within blue recycling 

bins and encourage greater participation in the scheme. 

Complete the roll out of food waste collections across the district. 

Look to increase the volume of green waste collected separately 

or co-mingled at the kerbside. 

13,429 13,242 12,074* Yes, we are improving – the 

amount of biodegradable 

municipal waste that is 

being landfilled continues 

to reduce. Statutory Target 

achieved? Yes 

NI Average 19,900 18,580 15,572 

Council has continued to roll out separate food waste collections across 

the district and is currently trialling the collection of co-mingled food 

and green waste from households. In addition Council has put in place 

measures to reduce the volume of contamination within blue recycling 

bins and encourage greater participation in the scheme. 

Complete the roll out of food waste collections across the district. 

Look to increase the volume of green waste collected separately 

or co-mingled at the kerbside.



W3 The amount (tonnage) of Local Authority Collected Municipal Waste Arisings 

(LACMW) (KPI (j)) 

What this 


Why this is 

important 



Compare 

What we have 

done 

to improve 



to improve 

* Subject to verification 

This indicator shows the total amount of local authority collected 

municipal waste which has been collected by the Council and includes 

both household and commercial wastes. 

In keeping within our improvement objective, we aim to reduce this 

figure over time, however, as economic activity increases, the population 

expands, new housing developed etc waste arisings may also increase 

and our actions will minimise this as much as possible. 

For this reason, Council is committed to putting in 

place programmes to encourage consumers to reduce waste at source. 

Comparator 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 Are we Improving? 




70,901 74,481 77,707* As detailed above waste 

arisings have grown as a 

consequence of increased 

economic activity, new 

housing and population 

growth. 

Council remains below the 

NI average LA collected 

Municipal Waste Arisings. 

NI Average 88,105 89,636 88,892* 

Council has developed a ReUse Centre and actively encourages 

residents to donate unwanted items to this facility instead of more 

traditional disposal routes. Council has also promoted waste reduction 

activities encouraging residents and businesses to consider how they 

can prevent waste in the first instance. In addition Council has also 

recently adopted a Circular economy / Zero Waste strategy and will 

look to implement the actions identified within this strategy with key 

partners over the coming years. 

Council has developed a ReUse Centre and actively encourages 

residents to donate unwanted items to this facility instead of more 

traditional disposal routes. Council has also promoted waste reduction 

activities encouraging residents and businesses to consider how they 

can prevent waste in the first instance. In addition Council has also 

recently adopted a Circular economy / Zero Waste strategy and will 

look to implement the actions identified within this strategy with key 

partners over coming years.



PI The average processing time of major applications. Target: less than 30 weeks. 

What this 

indicator 

shows 

Why this is 

important 

Our 



Compare 

Why we have 

not achieved 

our statutory 

target 

What we 

have done 

to improve 

Future 

actions we 

will be taking 

to improve 

This indicator shows how quickly major planning applications are 

processed. 

Effective processing of planning applications can have a positive impact 

on investment and regeneration activity in the Council area which in turn 

may lead to positive outcomes with regard to job creation/employment. 






District 

Council 

53.5 

weeks 

(Legacy 

cases 53.6 

weeks) 

(Council 

received 

cases 32.6 

weeks) 

NI Average 46.4 

weeks 

304.8 

weeks 

(Legacy 

cases 

375.8 

weeks) 

(Council 

received 

cases 

46.2 

weeks) 

68.6 

weeks 

63.2 

weeks 

(Legacy 

cases 

332.4 

weeks) 

(Council 

received 

cases 

42.3 

weeks) 

50.2 

weeks 

Yes, our performance 

is improving. However, 

this average figure is 

distorted by legacy 

cases. Council only 

applications processing 

times have improved 

in the last 2 years from 

46.2 to 42.3 weeks and 

now are 12.3 weeks from 

target and 7.9 weeks 

from NI Average. 

Statutory Target 

achieved? No 

This indicator is an average figure and is distorted by legacy cases. Council 

only applications processing times have improved in the last 2 years from 

46.2 to 42.3 weeks and now are 12.3 weeks from target and 7.9 weeks 

from NI Average. Resources displaced in order to deliver LDP 

and recruitment of professional and technical staff ongoing. 

Improvements have been made by set up of the Strategic Team within the 

Departmental structure and regular monthly reviews of applications. 

Future actions will include identifying key timelines for project 

management by use of traffic light reports and regular Group meetings. 

A new staffing structure is being implemented.



P2 The average processing time of local planning applications. Target: less than 15 weeks 

What this 


Why this is 

important 



Compare 

Why we have 

not achieved our 

statutory target 

What we have 

done 

to improve 



to improve 

This indicator shows how quickly local planning applications are 

processed. 

Effective processing of planning applications can have a positive impact 

on investment and regeneration activity in the Council area which in turn 

may lead to positive outcomes with regard to job creation employment. 






District 

Council 

17.0 

weeks 

(Legacy 

cases 

29.8 

weeks) 

(Council 

received 

cases 

12.8 

weeks) 

NI Average 19.4 

weeks 

19.1 

weeks 

(Legacy 

cases 

114.6 

weeks) 

(Council 

received 

cases 

16.2 

weeks) 

16.2 

weeks 

16.2 

weeks 

(Legacy 

cases 

155.6 

weeks) 

(Council 

received 

cases 

15.4 

weeks) 

15.2 

weeks 

Yes, our performance is 

improving. However, this 

average figure is distorted 

by ongoing legacy cases. 

Council only applications 

processing times have 

improved in the last 2 

years from 16.2 to 15.4 

weeks and now are 0.4 

weeks from target and 0.2 

weeks from NI Average. 

Statutory Target 

achieved? No 

This indicator is an average figure and is distorted by ongoing legacy 

cases. Council only applications processing times have improved in the last 

2 years from 16.2 to 15.4 weeks and now are 0.4 weeks from target and 

0.2 weeks from NI Average. Resources displaced in order to deliver LDP 

and recruitment of professional and technical staff ongoing. 

Improvements have been made by prioritising significant applications 

and regular monthly reviews by Head of Planning and Principal Planning 

Officers. 

Future actions will include streamlining processes, applying a traffic light 

reporting system and holding regular Group meetings.



P3 The percentage of enforcement cases processed within 39 weeks. Target: 70% 

What this This indicator shows how quickly Enforcement cases are concluded. 


Why this is 

important 

Our 



Compare 

What we have 

done 

to improve 


we will be 

taking to 

improve 


ED1 The number of jobs promoted through business start-up activity. Target 140 jobs 

What this indicator No. Business Plans delivered and Jobs Promoted (0.61472 rate) 

shows 

Why this is 

important 



Compare 

Why we have 

not achieved our 

statutory target 

What we have 

done to improve 

Future actions we 

will be taking to 

improve 

To ensure the Council’s Planning Department takes appropriate and 

proportionate action in dealing with alleged breaches of planning control. 






District 

Council 

Job promotion is key to improving economic activity in the Council area. 

This indicator illustrates the support provided to new business starts. 






District 

Council 

77.1% 75.9% 71% A gradual reduction is reflected 

in performance. However the 

target has been met. 

NI Average 77.2% 80.7% 77% Statutory Target achieved? Yes 

The gradual reduction is due to resources being re-allocated to Development 

Management in order to assist with the Development Plan. 

Future actions will include the re-deployment of team members back to 

the Enforcement Team, the implementation of weekly Group meetings and 

quarterly project plans to target reduction of open cases. 

198 171 139 In line with the NI trend, 

performance in this area has 

declined, however, other areas 

of job creation have greatly 

outperformed their targets. 

Statutory Target achieved? 

No 

NI Average 219 208 159 

This is one aspect of job creation and has suffered through a lack of 

marketing overall in NI during 2017/18. This has now been addressed for 

future years. Changes in central government have also had an adverse 

impact on the uptake for this programme. 

Introduction of enhanced business support programmes to improve 

performance of NIBSUP in DCSDC area including £10k Business Start Up 

Challenge and City Start programme. 

Continue to develop and deliver enhanced business support programmes 

to stimulate requirements for business plans.


Overall Assessment 

This Performance Report highlights some 

of the significant work that Derry City 

and Strabane District Council has taken 

forward in 2017/18 in delivering its Mission 

and its Corporate Objectives which are 

linked to the Inclusive Strategic Growth 

Plan 2017-2032 (Our Community Plan). 

Progress has also been delivered in 

achieving our Improvement Objectives 

which are again linked, as appropriate, 

to the Inclusive Strategic Growth Plan. 

In respect of the Statutory Indicators, 

there is evidence of improvement and 

opportunities for further progress. 

Positive trends have also been identified 

in a number of areas where we currently 

collate performance data and the Council 

is committed to enhancing monitoring 

and reporting systems. 

The Council has identified its 

arrangements for delivering its duty 

of continuous improvement and is 

continuing to enhance its Planning, 

Improvement and Performance Review 

Framework. 

The Council is committed to and has 

worked to discharge its general duty 

to secure continuous improvement in 

2017/18. 

Publishing our 


Our Annual Performance Report 2017/18 

will be published on the Council’s website 

at: www.derrystrabane.com as soon 

as is practical and by 30th September 

2018 in line with statutory requirements. 

Members of the public will also be 

able to access this information at the 

Council’s offices and can comment on 

our Performance Report by emailing us 

at: improvement@derrystrabane.com 

How to get involved 

We are keen to get your feedback on any 

of the issues covered in this document. 

You can also propose new Improvement 

Objectives, or make comments on the 

existing ones by emailing the Council 

at: improvement@derrystrabane.com. 

We also have a dedicated Equality 

Assurance and Oversight Group which 

provides the opportunity to engage 

directly with Council Officers regarding 

the Council’s activities. If you have 

any queries or would like to become 

a member, please email: equality@ 

derrystrabane.com or simply contact 

the Equality Officer on 028 71 253 253 

Ext 6705. 

The consultation web pages publish all 

current consultation being undertaken 

by the Council, and give information 

about how people can participate.


Information to be compiled by Public Authorities under Section 3(1)(a) of the Rural 

Needs Act (NI) 2016. 

Reporting Period: April 2017 to March 2018 

The following information should be compiled in respect of each policy, strategy and 

plan which has been developed, adopted, implemented or revised and each public 

service which has been designed or delivered by the public authority during the 

reporting period. 

Description of the 

activity undertaken 

by the public 

authority which is 

subject to section 

1(1) of the Rural 

Needs Act (NI) 

20161. 

Development of a 

Community Plan 

for the Derry City 

and Strabane 


Area - In line with 

Section 10 of the 

Local Government 

Act (Northern 

Ireland) 2014 

The rural policy 

area(s) 

which the activity 

relates to. 

Rural Tourism 

Rural 

Development 

Rural Businesses 

Jobs or 

Employment 

in Rural Areas 

Education or 

Training 


Transport Services 

or Infrastructure 


Broadband 

or Mobile 



Poverty in Rural 

Areas 

Deprivation in 

Rural Areas 

Agri-Environment 

Rural housing 

Heath or Social 

Care Services in 

Rural Areas 

Rural crime or 

community safety 

Rural 

Development 

Describe how the public authority has had 

due regard to rural needs when developing, 

adopting, implementing or revising the policy, 

strategy or plan or when designing or delivering 

the public service. 

Over 5,000 people were engaged in the 

co-design of the Strategic Growth Plan. This 

co-design process agreed the framework for 

the development of the plan and facilitated 

the establishment of eight thematic working 

groups to develop the outcomes, indicators and 

actions. Within these thematic working groups, 

a number of specific needs pertaining to rural 

areas were identified. 

These included (but were not limited to): 

• The need for improved broadband 

connectivity in rural areas; 

• The need for more direct transport links/ 

connectivity with and to other regions 

and connectivity within and between 

local communities; 

• The need to strongly improve and 

enhance rural social, economic and 

environmental regeneration; 

• The need to conserve, enrich and protect 

environmental and built heritage assets in 

rural areas. 

All issues identified pertaining to the social and 

economic needs of people in rural areas were 

considered in the development of the Strategic 

Growth Plan. The final plan includes a long list 

of actions aligned to 8 outcomes. These were 

subject to a 16-week public consultation and 

amendments have been made to the final plan 

to address any issues raised as a result of the 

public consultation feedback.

Appendix 1 68 


activity undertaken 

by the public 

authority which is 

subject to section 

1(1) of the Rural 

Needs Act (NI) 

20161. 


area(s) 

which the 

activity 

relates to. 

Describe how the public authority has had due 

regard to rural needs when developing, adopting, 

implementing or revising the policy, strategy or 

plan or when designing or delivering the public 

service. 

The Strategic Growth Plan includes the following 

actions which have been developed to address the 

specific needs of rural areas. The full list of actions 

aligned to the 8 outcome of the Strategic Growth 

Plan are detailed in the full document (http:// 

www.derrystrabane.com/getmedia/1eb99e2e- 

e657-45a1-8b27-e2b35a36d65c/SGP_22- 

November2017_lowres.pdf) 

• Maximise job creation and investment 

opportunities in our City and Town Centres, 

regionally significant regeneration sites and 

rural areas. 

• Develop a pilot Rural Community Broadband 

Scheme and roll out in multiple locations. 

• Deliver business start-up programmes 

and development support focused on 

areas of high economic inactivity and rural 

community hubs. 

• Develop a heritage/conservation-led 

masterplan and renewal action plan for the 

village of Sion Mills and other settlements, 

including Newtownstewart town centre 

conservation area. 

• Protect and promote our natural and built 

heritage assets through the establishment 

of multi-sectoral heritage partnerships, 

heritage education programmes, skills 

specialisms development and integration 

with our tourism product offering. 

• Provide quality social and private housing in 

sustainable urban and rural neighbourhoods 

to meet the needs of our growing 

population, providing attractive places to 

live within easy access to local services and 

amenities. 

• Promote neighbourhood and village 

enhancement through the development of 

local environmental improvement schemes 

and community play parks and facilities. 

• Promote greater integration and inclusion 

within and between communities through 

animating shared spaces, services and 

facilities and the development of rural 

community clusters. 

This plan has been screened to ensure that 

this strategic policy supports sustainable rural 

development in accordance with The Rural Needs 

Act (Northern Ireland) 2016.


Description of the activity 

undertaken by the public 

authority which is subject to 

section 1(1) of the Rural Needs 

Act (NI) 20161. 

Local Community Planning 

Process – Development of 8 

Local Growth Plans for 7 DEAs 

and Strabane Town. Three of 

DEAs are rural, Sperrin, 

Derg and Faughan. 

The establishment of 8 

Local Community Growth 

Partnership Boards for 

Strabane Town, Ballyarnett, 

Moor, Waterside, Foyleside, 

Sperrin, Derg and Faughan 

to take forward the 8 Local 

Community Growth Plans. 

A strategic programme of 

activity to maximize the 

region’s tourism potential and 

position the (tourism) sector 

as a key driver of economic 

growth. The specific ambition 

of this activity will be to double 

visitor spend over the period 

(2018-2025) from £50mn to 

£100mn and to create an extra 

1,000 jobs within the sector. 

Providing the road map for 

delivery is the document: 

Derry City & Strabane District 

Tourism 2018- 2025: A New 

Level Of Ambition. 

It identifies a total of 64 key 

actions - relating to Product 

& Experience; Visitor Serving 

and Destination Marketing - 

which will require development 

and investment to enable the 

achievement of our targets for 

growth. 


area(s) 


relates to. 

Rural Tourism 

Rural 

Development 

Rural Businesses 

Jobs or 

Employment 


Education or 

Training in Rural 

Areas 


or Infrastructure in 

Rural Areas 

Broadband 

or Mobile 



Poverty in Rural 

Areas 

Deprivation in 

Rural Areas 

Describe how the public authority has 

had due regard to rural needs when 




service. 

The 8 local community plans have been 

developed via a co-design approach 

through consultation with residents 

from the specific DEAs including input 

from the Community & Voluntary Sector 

and Statutory Partners. Consultation 

workshops have been held in the 3 rural 

DEAs of Sperrin, Derg and Faughan – 

the issues raised are specific to the 3 

rural areas and have been highlighted 

within the 3 local growth plans for these 

DEAs. The local plans will be screened 

to ensure that they support sustainable 

rural development in accordance with 

this important statutory rule. 

The implementation of the local plans 

will lead to the development and 

improvement of the social, economic 

and environmental wellbeing of citizens 

in the three rural DEAs of Sperrin, Derg 

and Faughan. 

Derry City & Strabane District Tourism 

2018- 2025: A New Level Of Ambition. 

The strategy and its actions have been 

informed by the Community Planning 

Process undertaken by Derry City & 

Strabane District Council (and the due 

regards to rural needs it applied). 

The development of the strategy was 

informed by an extensive consultation 

process which included representation 

from citizens from throughout the region 

and from the private and community 

sectors and multi government agencies. 

The adoption of strategy was subject to 

the approval of elected representatives 

including those representing rural areas.

Appendix 1 70 

Description of the activity 

undertaken by the public 

authority which is subject to 

section 1(1) of the Rural Needs 

Act (NI) 20161. 

Successful delivery will 

be dependent also on a 

collaborative approach being 

adopted by key stakeholders. 

To enable partnership working 

a Tourism Delivery Partnership 

has been created. 

Preparation of Rural Proofing 

– Baseline and Interim Report 

for Local Development Plan 

(LDP) Preferred Options 

Paper (POP) Stage published 

in May 2017. This is an interim 

report and a full Rural Proofing 

consideration of all the 

proposed draft LDP policies 

will be published at the draft 

Plan Strategy Stage expected 

in 2019. 


area(s) 


relates to. 

Agri-Environment 

This Preferred 

Options Paper 

(POP) is the 

first formal 

consultation 

stage in the 

preparation of the 

Council’s LDP for 

Derry City and 

Strabane District. 

The LDP will 

cover all aspects 

of planning 

policy that 

operate within 

the countryside 

including, housing, 

economy, 

infrastructural 

development, 

natural & 

built heritage, 

renewables, 

mineral extraction, 

waste etc. 

Describe how the public authority has 

had due regard to rural needs when 




service. 

The POP document published a series 

of preferred options which indicated 

Council’s preferred direction of travel 

in terms of the future development of 

planning policy which will be set out in 

the 2019 LDP Plan Strategy. 

To develop these preferred options, 

Planning officials undertook a series of 

2017 meetings with stakeholders, Rural 

Focus Groups and Elected Members to 

ensure the development of the POP had 

due regard to rural needs and pertinent 

issues were fed in to inform option 

development. The publication of the 

POP in May 2017 was also accompanied 

by a three-month consultation period 

and an extensive social media campaign 

to extract feedback from across the 

entire District. Hard copies of the POP 

documents were also distributed to all 

Council Sports facilities, community 

facilities, libraries, and Health practices 

to ensure they were widely distributed 

to maximise potential feedback. 

Successful public consultation events 

(am & pm) were also held in Claudy, 

Donemana and Castlederg to gather 

feedback.



activity undertaken by 

the public authority 

which is subject to 

section 1(1) of the Rural 


Good Relations Audit, 

Strategy and Action 

Plan 2018 – 2021 

Implementation 

of revised Street 

Naming and Property 

Numbering Policy 

Derry City and 

Strabane District 

Council commissioned 

the Arts & Culture 

Strategy 2019 - 2024. 

This strategy supports 

the ambitions of Derry 

City and Strabane 

District Council and its 

sector wide co-design 


co-delivery partners in 

the pursuit of worldclass 

arts, heritage and 

cultural offerings. 


area(s) 


relates to. 

Social needs of 

persons in rural 

areas 

Transport services 

or infrastructure in 

rural areas 

Rural Tourism 

Employment in 

Rural Areas 


and Infrastructure 


Services in Rural 

Areas 

Rural 

Development 






A number of workshops have been held within 

each of the Rural DEAs – the information and 

needs identified at these workshops in the rural 

DEAs have been taken on board and reflected 

in the Good Relations Strategy and Action Plan 

for 2018 – 2021. 

DCSDC revised the Street Naming and Property 

Numbering Policy which was in effect in the 

Legacy Council to include an explicit reference 

to ‘roads’ thereby allowing rural dwellers the 

opportunity to make applications for dual 

language road names in the area. 

This revised policy also makes provision for 

the inclusion of the relevant townland name in 

addition to the road name thereby preserving 

traditional place names. This policy was revised 

in consultation with rural communities in the 

Council area. 

The Arts & Culture Strategy 2019-2024 is 

designed to support the Inclusive Strategic 

Growth Plan. This Growth Plan was informed 

by the Community Planning Process including 

extensive consultation and engagement with 

rural citizens and representatives to ensure 

that rural needs were clearly articulated and 

addressed. 

For the Arts & Culture Strategy we used a codesign 

methodology to promote creativity and 

collaboration, establishing a co-design group 

to drive the development of this ambitious 

strategy. Its members were drawn from across 

the city and district including those from 

rural areas as they led more than 150 groups, 

organisations and individuals from across 

the district to both identify the issues and 

innovative solutions. Five Elected Members and 

18 representatives from statutory and support 

organisations were co-opted to help.

Appendix 1 72 


activity undertaken by 

the public authority 

which is subject to 

section 1(1) of the Rural 


It is based on evidence 

about the current 

scope, scale and value 

of the arts and the 

relevant outcomes 

of the Derry City and 

Strabane District 

Inclusive Strategic 

Growth Plan 2017- 

2032 and the local 

area plans. It has 

reviewed key trends 

and statistics locally, 

regionally, nationally 

and internationally. 

It is based on 

extensive consultation 

with stakeholder 

organisations, individual 

artists, practitioners 

and interested parties, 

external strategic 

stakeholders and 

communities and 

establishes indicators 

directly aligned with the 

Community Plan. 

The strategy identifies 

synergies and potential 

collaborations with 

its key internal and 

external strategic 

stakeholders and 

establishes indicators 

directly aligned with 

the Community Plan. 

It identifies potential 

resource requirements, 

efficiencies and service 

design opportunities 

for Council and the 

Co-Delivery Working 

Group. The action plan 

is ambitious, achievable, 

time bound, evidence 

based, and costed to 

deliver against agreed 

indicators. 


area(s) 


relates to. 






From the outset, the co-design group invested 

a significant amount of time and energy into 

tapping into the knowledge and expertise of 

the internal and external stakeholders, including 

rural communities engaged with the arts and 

culture sector in the Derry City and Strabane 

area. This process resulted in a collective view 

of how the sector’s arts ecosystem could be 

strengthened through working and creating 

together. 

Key to stakeholders and strategies used to 

inform strategy design included; Department 

of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, 

Growth Plan Delivery Partnerships, Local 

Growth Partnerships x 8 (Delivery bodies 

for Local Community Plans), North West 

Regional Development Group and the Rural 

Development Partnership. 

The Co-Design Process included cross party 

representation including Councillors from rural 

areas. Furthermore the adoption of strategy 

will be subject to the approval of elected 

representatives (including those representing 

rural areas) when presented to Business and 

Culture Committee in December 2018.

Overall Assessment 23 


Annual 


Report 


www.derrystrabane.com

Derry City and Strabane DC - Annual Performance Report 17/18

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